


Talk about unexpected

by Calla_Lilalma



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Am i the first one doing this pair?, Crush at First Sight, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting to Know Each Other, Goshiki is a dork, Goshiki is confused, Goshiki protection Squad, Light Angst, Multi, My First Fanfic, Panromantic Demisexual! Goshiki, Rare Pairings, Terushima is beautiful, Yachi is a good friend, and a sweetheart, because i'm a piece of shit, bisexual!Terushima, characters from other anime will appear, embarassement, i am really nervous about this, kind of, kinda Goshiki-centric, slowish built, slowish burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-08-29 11:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8487181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calla_Lilalma/pseuds/Calla_Lilalma
Summary: After graduating Shiratorizawa, Goshiki goes to University! The only things he wants to do is make friends, have decent grades and of course... be the next ace of the university's volleyball team! How will it go? Will it go as peacefully as he expects or will he get more than he asked for?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to my first fic! I am Calla Lilalma (although that's not even close to my real name, which will be keep sealed like an evil spirit) and this is my first official attempt on being a writer! I have written other things on my native language ( not english) but never actually found the courage to show anyone. I am pretty confident on my english, but I am always open for constructive critisism on my writing, vocabulary etc. I've read it counteless times to correct any small or big mistakes and i think i did the best i could. It is also my first time using a platform like this so the appearance of the fic may be a little messy. Once i get hold of it, I will fix it.
> 
> Also! if you saw the pairing you and still clicked to the fic, i applaud you. The idea of a GoshiTeru (taking the initiative here as the first/one of the few to do this pairing) was a really sudden one and then stuck to my mind. I have written 6 chapters of this so far and I have 80% of the plot planned in my head. It will be more than 10 chapters for sure. And I will update once every 2 weeks / twice a month. 
> 
> so! after all this word vomit, enjoy the first chapter of 'Talk about Unexpected' !
> 
> I do not own the characters.

Tsutomu was fired up yet nervous. He started his day by getting up at 5am, getting dressed and going on a jog to release some of his energy and stress. After an hour and a half  of fast jogging he went back to his small apartment, showered and ate a simple breakfast. At 7 am he was ready and left once again.

 From this day onward, he will be an university student with a sports scholarship. His hard work at Shiratorizawa Academy paid off and resulted in him being scouted by one of the best universities in the country. But he knew that that means stricter practices and a lot more at stake, as he also has to keep decent grades at his classes to maintain his scholarship. But that makes him all the more determined on his goal to have a good university life.

The train station was a 10 minute walk from his apartment and the ride to his university was another twenty. Sure, his classes didn’t start until eight thirty, but it was always good to be prepared , so he decided to go early to see where his classes are held and to check out the volleyball court before today’s practice. This, after all, will be the place where he will spent most of his time, training to be an even better ace than he was in high school, impressing his senpais and his future juniors!

When he found the court building, it was -of course- locked. But that didn’t make Tsutomu leave yet as he found a window that the building’s side and rushed to take a peek. Thankful  to its relatively low height, he was able to have a first glimpse of a shiny wooded paradise , full with volleyballs and nets that were still down, all cleaned to perfection, waiting for him to do his thunderous straight spikes and amazing receives.

He was so caught up in his daydream that he didn’t realize that a plethora of students start arriving and some of them were giving him curious glances, probably wondering what his was doing , but when he did, he checked his watch. 8:20 AM .Well shoot .He was going to get lost on his first day and that will surely create bad impressions. He started running through the crowd of students trying to find Lecture hall no.221. Finally after checking through every door he found at the second floor, he finally arrived to his destination. The hall was full of students but he was able to find a good seat while catching his breath.

A few minutes later, all the students have been settled  and were waiting for their professor. He was about to let his mind wander to the court again but a voice stopped him.

“E-E-E-Excuse m-me !! Is th-this seat t-t-taken?”  a high voice stutters.

He turns to his side to see a short girl with shoulder-length  hair pointing a shaking hand to the seat beside him where he put his bag, probably thinking it was reserved for somebody.

“I AM VERY SORRY!!!” Tsutomu said in a louder than necessary voice , earning a few strange look (for his second time in a day) while quickly moving his stuff  away “PLEASE HAVE A SEAT”  he continued in the same volume.

The girl yelped, startled by his voice, but still sat down next to him and offered him a squeaky  and stuttering  ‘thank you’. Now that Tsutomu has another look at her she seems familiar and by the look on her face, they have met somewhere. But before either of them can say anything, the professor walks in the classroom and demands complete attention from her students.

The rest of the hour and fifteen minute class goes smoothly, with both  Tsutomu and the girl taking meticulous notes and listening intently. Once the class is dismissed, they get up to pack their things and go to their next classes and Tsutomu decides to speak to the small (now that they are both standing she barely reaches his shoulder) and make his , hopefully, first friend.

“My name is Goshiki Tsutomu! Nice to meet you!” he says while bowing deeply to the girl.

She seems surprised by him talking to her but nonetheless she returns his gestures.

“My n-n-name is Yachi H-Hitoka! Nice t-to meet you t-t-t-too Goshiki-k-kun!” she says with a stutter, also bowing.

“I am sorry for asking you this , but have we met before?” he asks curiously , nervous that he might have offended her.

But fortunately she doesn’t seem offended and even smiles at him.

“Yes you might n-not remember, b-but I was the assistant manager of Karasuno at the spring tournament, but I was sitting in the bleachers so y-you might not had seen me. And the year after I became a regular manager not many pay attention to the opposite teams manager ” She says more confidently.

Ah, yes the spring tournament in his first year of high school, when he was challenging Ushijima-senpai for the position of the team’s ace and looking forward to more matches as a part of this powerhouse team. When they lost to Karasuno , a former powerhouse,  in a hair-raising match when no one was a sure victor. Where tendou- senpai’s block got read and Ushijima senpai’s spike was blocked. It was a bittersweet memory. Bitter because it was the last match with this team that he learn to love from the beginning but sweet because a match like that gave wind to the fire inside him that made him adore the sport even more. Because he was acknowledged as a capable player and ace and made him work harder to where he is now.

“I am very sorry that I can’t remember you Yachi-san but I hope we get along well from now on!” he said and bowed again.

“please take care of me”  she answered and repeated his actions.

While talking with Yachi-san (she insisted on him calling her just Yachi but that is going to take time) he learned that they are both majors in Education – and more specifically Children Education- so the will be having all of their classes together, which made them both relieved to have someone they know with them. He also learned that she will be applying to be the men’s volleyball club’s manager , just like high school and that her girlfriend is already the manager since her first year.

“Are you dating anyone?”  Yachi asked him after realizing she was talking for a while, not that he minded, when they were walking to their Psychology class and he felt a bit of colour rise on his cheeks.

“No….I am not” he says.

And he isn’t. Or more correctly , he has never. His time has been mostly spent in practicing , studying , and spending time with his family. While in middle school he had a crush on a classmate of his , he decided to not confess to them because after a few weeks it turned out to be just a short moment of fixation to him and getting into Shiratorizawa Academy was more important to him. And in his years in the Academy, he had developed a crush on Semi–senpai. Although he didn’t want to confess because it may have been bad for the team’s dynamic, his behaviour sometimes around Semi-senpai would cause awkwardness . So he had decided to confine to Reon-senpai, as he always had a solution. When he told him about his crush, at first Reon-senpai was surprised because he (and as he learned along the way, the whole team) thought he had a crush on Ushijima, but at Tsutomu’s utterly confused look at the revelation , he immediately changed his mind. With his guidance, he confessed to Semi-senpai but, as he predicted, he got rejected. After that he was able to focus more at practice as a weight had lifted off of his shoulders. Semi sometimes tutored him when he needed help at math and worked with him at crossed spikes and how to spike at various heights. During that time he realized that his supposed crush was just a short lived infatuation.

And now that he attends university , finding someone to date is something that he doesn’t want to rush. Whether or not it will happen here, he will find out during these four years that he will live his college years. For now he will go with the flow and focus on what is in front of him.

The rest of their classes go smoothly and before he know it, it’s time for the first volleyball practice. He and Yachi head to the court, which is now open and the sounds of balls hitting the floor with force can be heard.

When they went in, they started looking around the court in awe. It looked even more like a professional court than those in Shiratorizawa! The nets were up now and it looked like the national team was going to play here, rather than a university team.

Suddenly, someone called for everybody’s attention and for the new recruits to line up. Yachi said she will be at the bleachers as she wasn’t a player and the application for manager was different than the players’.

“Alright! Listen Up!!” says one of the older players, a boy with light brown buzz cut and a slightly large build  “My name is Nakashima Takeru  and I am the captain of the team and this” he points to a guy with black hair and a chin curtain-style beard with a short-trimmed goatee and reminds Tsutomu of Karasuno’s ace because they both look much older than they actually are “is the vice-captain, Hanayama Kazumasa”  the guy in question greets the players with a ‘sup’ and a lazy wave.

“As you know, some of you may not get in the team but that does not mean that you don’t have to do your best to prove that you belong here. Also the students that are here with a sports scholarship are immediately in the team. BUT!! We still can kick you out , either because of your attitude in practice and games  or because of you don’t put the effort . So, now that we said that, let’s start with the introductions!” Captain Nakashima said with a encouraging smile. “State your name  and your position”

The first years started introducing themselves, including a small back-haired boy named  Shibayama Yuuki that is a libero who bowed shyly to their senpais. When Tsutomu’s turn arrived, he bowed deeply and stated with a determined and enthusiastic voice :

“MY NAME IS GOSHIKI TSUTOMU AND I AM A WING SPIKER!PLEASE TAKE CARE OF ME!”

Apparently some of the seniors knew him because the Vice-Captain Hanayama asked him if he was Shiratorizawa’s ace after Ushijima.

“That’s me senpai! And I aim to be the ace here also! Please guide me !” he announced boldly. There was no point denying that he wanted to be the ace and by no means he was trying to steal his senpai position, but he wanted to be acknowledged by the ace now , much like what happened in high school.

Nakashima laughed kindly at his statement “well , as the ace of the team for now , I can’t wait for you to show me what you’ve got!” and thusly the introductions continued.

He recognized one of the first years, Koganegawa Kanji, who he was with at the first years’ training camp at the Shiratorizawa Academy. The tall setter had shown a lot of promise from what he saw and from the similarly enthusiastic introduction, he had a feeling that they would get along great.

Once done, they were told to get dressed and start practicing with the rest of the team. After stretching ,Tsutomu went to work Shibayama  and a second year setter named Komaki Yuzuru, while Koganegawa went with two second years, a wing spiker named Fukunaga  Shohei, and a middle blocker, who was in Karasuno as Tsutomu remembered, Kazuhito Narita. The practice was watched by the captain, the vice-captain and another wing spiker named Asamushi Kaito, who couldn’t participate because of a mild cold and stayed away from the players.

Practice was hard , as he had to learn how to play with these new players and communicate with them , but also enjoyable because playing with a different team meant he will get more experienced. After captain Nakashima ended practice, they got into the showers and got dressed and were introduced to Kiyoko- san, the manager. She was a very beautiful girl with long raven hair and gray eyes behind elegant glasses. Next to her was Yachi, who gave him an excited wave and whispered to him to wait for her  when he left.

“Goshiki-kun! Good work today!” Yachi say excitedly when she and Kiyoko approached him.

“Thank you very much Yachi-san, how did it go with the manager’s position?” he asked in reply.

“It went really well. Kiyoko put a good word for me and from today I will be assistant manager!”  she exclaimed happily . She looked at Kiyoko and with a blush she introduced them but not her as a manager and him as a player , but as her girlfriend and her friend.

“It’s nice to meet you Goshiki-kun. Please take care of Hitoka-chan for me” she said in a leveled voice, making Yachi blush even more and him to say yes with determination.

When he started to head home from the university in the afternoon it was still day due to it still being September and the wind was chilly but not cold.  He was passing the bus station at on his way, thinking what to have for dinner when he heard a shout of “WAIT! DAMN IT!” and some more loud curses from somewhere over the university entrance. Apparently that someone was trying to catch the bus that was about two minutes from arriving to the station and from the looks of it, they didn’t have a chance of catching it because they was far away at the staircase and the brick wall that went around the university was an obstacle.

But that didn’t seem to deter the person as the starting walking down the stairs 5 steps at the time really quick and they headed for the wall. Just as Tsutomu lost sight of them, he heard gasps and saw people looking above him.  Just as he looked up he saw it…

The person seemed to have climbed up the call and jumping over it !

Just as he was about to move away in fear he got injured, the person landed smoothly, like a professional free runner, in front of him, giving Tsutomu a second-long view of this person .

While they were running towards the bus, which just arrived at the station some people were whispering about the reckless feat some applauded and others did both as they got into the bus.

But Tsutomu was not one of those people.

Because he was to stunned to move.

And not because someone had almost landed on top of him and possibly hurting themselves and him, which he immediately doubted since they seemed to know what they were doing.

But because he got a glimpse of the most beautiful human being he has ever seen.

His university life started with a bang, he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a glimpse of Goshiki's daily life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hei again! Thank you for being here again and for the reception of the first chapter! I know I said I would update much later but I can't help it! I am still insecure about my writing and my social anxienty doesn't make things better and seeing the response of the first chapter is making me giddy! 
> 
> I am aware that a lot of shit has happened recently (we all know what i mean but writing it will make me throw up) and a lot of people are afraid and may be tired to hear this all over again but I want to say that I am too. I may live in southern Europe but i am scared of the impact it will have. I say to the people that are reading this that we will get throught this! You are not alone and I hope it provides you even a minisculine sense of comfort even if it is from a lousy writer on ao3 that is in the other side on an ocean.
> 
> As many anime have tought me, when we fall we have to get up again and never give up! (Yeah i am an anime nerd-no regrets)
> 
> I hope my story will make you smile and/or at least distract you for a little while even if you don't like it.
> 
> This chapter isn't really juicy or anything, it's just to establish some of the characters and describe my dear Goshiki's life thus far! I also want to say that the story isn't very intense, it has angst (light because I have a heart made of the thinnest glass) but overall it's a calm story. 
> 
> So! after all the word vomit (again), enjoy the second chapter!

A week has passed since then and the beautiful flying person (the first not-so-creative words that came in his mind while thinking about them) hasn’t left his mind. He kept thinking about their dark blonde hair and their alluring almond coloured eyes that held a wildness and a mischievousness that made them all the more attractive. They seemed  to be shorter than him and with a more lean form but that was all he was able to see in those two seconds that their one-sided meeting took place. That week he was consciously looking around with hopes that he will see them again or, if he is really blessed, he will learn their name or even talk to them. He isn’t that brave to start asking around, they may think he is being a creep or something.

But other than that, his life is going great! His spikes were getting better, his senpais were giving him advice and now that Asamushi senpai is well he can get used to the methods of all the players. He is also getting along very well with the other first years. Shibayama-kun is shy at the beginning and insecure about his receives but once he is starting to open up , he is improving at a quick pace. It seems that he attended the same high school with Fukunaga-senpai, who is also quiet but not shy as he has the talent to make jokes without actually saying them like some sort of telepathy. Same situation seemed to be with the captain and vice-captain who were from the same team in high school and in middle school and Asamushi senpai and Komaki senpai who are together since elementary school. Nakashika-senpai has started showing them pictures of his younger siblings and especially his younger brother who is 3 years old and does the most adorable things. Kazumata-senpai has a younger sister who is thirteen and he often  complaints to them about the things ‘puberty does to his sweetheart of a sister’. Komaki and Asamushi are more serious but nonetheless have volunteered to tutor the first years in some subjects, in case they are having trouble and which gained them their respect in a heartbeat.

 As he predicted he made fast friend with Koganegawa, as they hadn’t interacted match at the camp three years ago and they started talking  about the continuation of their volleyball teams in their high schools. He learned that Kanji-kun (“we are buddies now Tsutomu-kun!!! If we are gonna be ace and star setter, we don’t need formalities!!” he said as if it was obvious) was in the Dateko team, a team with excellent blocks and a catchy cheer. After that he learned that they had some classes together, Kanji-kun was studying to be a social worker and it unexpectedly suits him as he has the same childish (in a good way) energy, is very supportive of everybody he knows and seems that he is very good with children. Due to his height, he tends to sit in the back of the class so Tsutomu and Yachi have volunteered to lend their notes in the classes that he didn’t hear or couldn’t see.

Speaking of Yachi (as he finally started calling her) they are still hanging out together and sometimes he joins her and Kiyoko san. But those times are few as he has the feeling that he is spoiling a date of their , even if they are insisting that he is not. Sometimes he accepts , but others not.

Kiyoko-san studies business administration and is really smart as she is always at the top 5 on the student lists and on her way for an internship at a famous enterprise. She has been manager since her first year and in a relationship with Yachi since her a little before her high school graduation.

Their relationship is something that Tsutomu both admires and guiltily envies. Kiyoko san is a steady rock to Yachi’s shaking gestures, she encourages her to be more outgoing without pressuring her to do something she finds unpleasant. She sees logic and states the facts boldly but not unkindly  when Yachi gets nervous over small things.

But Yachi on her part seems to be the one that appreciates details that many people ignore like the flowers on their way to class or something that she saw and reminded her of Kiyoko. Where Kiyoko is logic and facts, Yachi is emotion and feelings, where she can see when the words do not match the emotions and gestures. She makes Kiyoko take her feet off the ground and see past the reality and into their dreams together. They have never hidden their relationship, holding hands wherever and whenever they wanted and having inside jokes between them. It’s a silent type of affection that everyone can see.

Tsutomu is ashamed of the fact that he is envious. Of course, he is happy for his new friends that they have a long lasting and happy relationship, but wonders if he will have that. Someone that he will communicate with so effortlessly and be able to read each other like a favourite book, with ease and care but also with hidden meanings that some he will discover on the way and others will remain hidden but appreciated over time. Someone that will make him feel like volleyball does, excited and at peace, eager to be challenged and to overcome challenges and make him think and act outside his comfort zone.

Shining almond eyes enter his mind, but he quickly dismisses them. It is going to take a lot of luck to meet the stranger again and he hopes it happens.  It is not like him to like someone so quickly but he felt a pull towards this person. Not necessarily romantic, but he wanted to get to know this person. What they were studying, did they like volleyball or of they played , how did they learn to do such cool and awesome free running stunts and so on. Just a peek on this person’s life would be enough and then maybe a good friendship , right? No matter how beautiful they are. He sighed. 

When he arrived home after practice that afternoon, he started to make something for dinner. He might not be a master cook but his father taught him last year how to make many cheap, easy and tasty dishes. While some of the ingredients where being cooked, he decided to send a few messages. One to a junior of his back at Shiratorizawa, the captain he appointed about how they are doing at practice, one to Tendou-senpai to ask how he and Ushijima-senpai are doing and his review on an anime Tendou-senpai has recommended him to see, and one to Semi-senpai to also catch up.

He then decided to call his family and ask them how they are doing and say that he misses them. And the truth is, he does. He may love it here, being independent even though it has been a week since he started university and a month since he move in here, but sometimes he misses his mother giving him a kiss in the forehead when she wakes up last in the morning, not late enough though to watch him leave, while his dad makes breakfast as he was the only one guaranteed not to burn the kitchen like his mother some years ago.

He ate dinner at his small living room, sitting under the kotatsu and watching tv. The only other furniture that he had in  the room was a medium sized couch which can become a bed in case he had a guest over. Overall , his apartment was medium sized, especially the bedroom and bathroom, which were just enough to make him comfortable, despite his large build and height. The kitchen was the smallest space in the house but he didn’t plan to do anything fancy there except from the basic chores.

He received a message from one of his juniors, saying that he won a practice match and that he doesn’t have to worry and a massage from Tendou-senpai with too many emoticons saying that they should plan a high school reunion now that Tsutomu’s also graduated and it has been way too long that he hasn’t seen his favourite junior and that even Ushijima missed him. He laughed slightly at that as he couldn’t see Ushijima-san saying those exact words with his permanent straight-faced expression.

After he’s done the dishes, he decides to go to sleep. They have morning practice tomorrow and he want to be in top form by then, so rest is much needed.

But that doesn’t stop soft looking blond hair and playful brown eyes invading his thoughts for the second time in the same day. And when sleep overtakes him, he can’t  make them leave.

It seems that the only one who has the energy for morning practice aside from him was Kanji kun, who the moment he entered he shouted to Tsutomu to be warm up pals , causing Komaki senpai start doing breathing exercises while rubbing his temples. Tsutomu immediately started running laps, careful to not cause too much noise and upset his tired senpais. But as practice moves on, everybody is starting to get more awake and by the time when they start with practicing serves , everybody is like always.

Yachi and Kiyoko arrived a little later than them as they don’t have to do much when the players are warming up and they help to set up the nets .They announce the practise programme for today, with the captain’s approval and corrections and write down notes about their playing styles and techniques. 

Everything goes smoothly, except when Tsutomu almost spiked a ball to Shibayama-kun’s face or when Fukunaga collided with the net because Kanji-kun’s setting was ‘high as a kite’ as Asamushi senpai said, but as Hanayama senpai said ‘shit, happens’. When they got out of the court, he found Yachi and Kiyoko waiting for him and Kanji-kun to go to class, since it was a shared one. He smiled in gratitude and the three of them went to the education building, Kiyoko walking them half the way as the Business Administration building was in the east complex and not in the north.

After class , the girls invite the boys for coffee and to hang out after practise as they want to see more of their friends. Kanji-kun, unfortunately, can’t make it because his older sister and their family are visiting and he wants to be there, but Tsutomu doesn’t have anything to do, so he accepts.

A fifteen minute walk later, they arrive at an unknown to Tsutomu area, full with coffee shops and other stores. He thinks it’s amazing that there is a complete different ambiance between here and the campus , no matter how close they are. There are people everyone, from kids running around with their worried parents right behind, to students their age or older hanging out  drinking beverages like they are about to do.

Kiyoko-san leads the way to one of the coffee shop away from the more crowed area, whose sign says ‘180 Degrees: Coffee shop at day, Bar at night” with the perfect merging appearances of both a coffee shop. It is not as crowed as the rest of the shops, so they easily find a place to sit. The interior is following the same style as the exterior and he is impressed that it manages to stand out from the rest of the coffee shop in the area and how Kiyoko san found such an interesting place.

She seems to have read his expression and answers with a simple “I work here 3 days a week the last shift before it becomes a bar and the first shift during the weekends” and a shrug.

He still looks around a little after they sit and then turns to Yachi to start a conversation. But before he can open his mouth he  hears a deep voice saying with a flirty tone :

 

“Megane-chan ! Did you miss me so much that you came here on your day off?”

They turn around towards the source and then Tsutomu, for the second time in his short university career thus far, remains speechless and in awe by the same person that’s standing in front of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was it? Did you like it! The updates after that will be slower because I will run out of ready chapters to post and then I am going to panic that I don't have anything to post and then I will pressure myself to write and nothing will come out and I will slack off on my studying at Univesity and fail even more classes which will make me panic even more and.......and....
> 
> Well, that seems fun. But please don't worry about me! 
> 
> I hope you come again for the next chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goshiki meets new faces and a newly familiar one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hei again! thank you for coming back again! I know I said i would update in December but I couldn't help myself! I wrote and updated "If we ever meet again", which I wrote in 4 days and almost immediately updated! Now I'm stuck on nitpicking it all the time and cursing myself for the stupid mistakes. But i got to giddy (again) and said to myself "why not start having a little more anxienty by worring when you'll be out of ready chapters for this fic, huh" to which I answered "sure, i already have anxienty about everything sooo why not?" 
> 
> About the chapter, again it's again Goshiki-centric with a lot of descriptions of the universe (and now that i think about it, many of my chapters are like that too) and as the summary says we meet two new characters! they are some of the other anime characters i put in the tag! i love putting characters from different anime together because to me they fit like pieces in a puzzle! It's so fun imagining them together. 
> 
> After all this word vomit, here is the new chapter! I hope you enjoy it!  
> I do not own any of the characters.

“Terushima- kun,  I came here with friends to drink some coffee, how are you?”  Kiyoko-san asks.

“I have to work this swift and the night one , so.. not as awesome as I’d like. Hey Yachi-chan! you look as cute as always!”  the man in question answered, making Yachi blush.“The usual order for you ?” there were nods from the girls “And for your friend?” He nodded towards Tsutomu.

But he wasn’t listening as he has still to get over the shock of meeting  the wild- no.. Tesrushima. Now that he is not just a 2 second flash at the bus station, he seems even more beautiful. He has dyed blond hair with a dark undercut that along with the piercings in his ears (Tsutomu counts 4 in one ear and 5 in the other) give him a wild punk look. His build is lean and straight as he stands proudly with the coffee shop’s uniform, a form fitting white dress shirt with a black vest which hug his body and black slacks that Tsutomu is glad he can’t see further because if he did he is sure he’d combust.

But the one thing that hasn’t changed is the eyes. They shine the same breath-taking (he tries to find other words to describe the constant beautiful his mind repeats) light brown and now that they are looking at him he is absolutely frozen—

 

Wait.

 

They are looking at him

 

And not just Terushima, Kiyoko and Yachi are also looking at him, the last one appears to be poking him for a while before he finally responds with a complete blush and a string of apologies emphasized with a stutter that he thought he’d gotten over in elementary school.

“Are you okay, Goshiki-kun ?” Yachi asks worriedly and he turns to her to hide his shame of what was probably checking out their waiter.

“I-I-I am fine!! T-T-T-Thank you for a-a-asking and I-I am terribly so-so-sorry for n-not responding!!!” he replies quickly in one stuttering breath. 

When he turns to Terushima to apologize as he was the one being stared down-he doesn’t want to say checked out- but he sees no one.

“I took the liberty to order a hot chocolate for you. And don’t worry you didn’t freaked Terushima-kun out, I distracted him.” Kiyoko-san interrupts his thoughts when she sees the terrified and flustered look at his face.

He is truly grateful to have met such a life saver.

He drinks his water in one gulp, trying to cool the heat he feels and also slightly trying to avoid any conversation. He tries not to turn his face towards the bar’s direction in fear that someone will see him staring.

You can never be too careful, his father says.

 After he’s sure he’s calm he smiles brightly at the girls and dismisses their worries with a boisterous laugh, saying it’s the adrenaline from practice that hasn’t left his body yet.

He hears footsteps coming to their table and immediately sits up straight to face the source of his previous embarrassment outburst.

“Hello again! So, we have an iced coffee for Megane-chan, an Americano for Yachi-chan…” Terushima states and gives them their drinks,

“and a hot chocolate for our shy fella over here!”  he put down Tsutomu’s drink and..

Did just –Did he just wink at him?

“T-THANK YOU VERY M-MUCH!!” he exclaimed, startling Terushima for a moment before he started laughing.

“Oh man! That almost scared me! Maybe I was wrong about ya’ being shy and all” he says when he managed to control his laughter “The name’s Terushima Yuuji. Now , how about ya give me your name to match that cute face of yours or something?”

Tsutomu is both confused and flustered at Terushima’s  words. Was he flirting with him? Does he mean it or it was just playful words? Maybe he is like that with everybody, judging by the way he addressed Kiyoko and Yachi, who he doesn’t even dare to face right now.

It doesn’t matter which it is, the majority of his blood is back on his face and the stutter doesn’t seem to leave him just yet…

“It’s G-G-Goshik-ki Ts-Ts-Tsutomu! N-nice to meet you T-T-Terushima-s-san”  he bows but he forgot he was sitting so he almost hits his head on the table.

When will he stop embarrassing himself already?

“So formal Goshiki-kun!” He reaches out towards Tsutomu and pat him in the back and there was a shout of Terushima to hurry up.

“Sorry, duty calls. See ya later!” and he goes away.

Tsutomu finally breathes.

His back feels warm where he was patted.

And he can feel two intense gazes on him and he turns with a sheepish smile at them rubbing the back of his neck. Much to his relief, they don’t try to press the subject by asking questions. The conversation falls easily into place after that, about topic such as the upcoming projects at their classes and about the team’s performance statistics. Tsutomu asks about the improvements he can make and about the other players, so he can work more in sync.  They talk about Kiyoko’s job here (he tries not to ask about a certain co-worker) and Tsutomu considers on getting a job himself.

 “It is pretty much certain that you won’t find any waiting positions or something in coffee shops. The customer service positions are the most compelling to students and especially in areas this close to campus. Maybe some convenience store is looking someone for manual labour. Are you okay with that?” she advises him when he voiced his thoughts.

“Yes of course.”

“Then while I am at work, I will ask around and will inform you either at practice or I will get your number from Yachi.”

“thank you very much Kiyoko-san”

“Don’t mention it Goshiki-kun” she nodded at him, smiling.

They paid for their orders and left -Tsutomu was both relieved and disappointed that he didn’t speak to Terushima again. It had gotten dark and he insisted to accompany Kiyoko and Yachi to their shared apartment. He knew that they could take care of themselves just fine, but it would take his worry away knowing that they were safe. He waved off their claims about making him stay longer while tired from practice and took them to their apartment complex not far away from the shopping district. After that he walked a few minutes to the train station and arrived home at approximately 8 pm. The rest of the evening went by with same routine. Cooking dinner, showering and watching tv – he started a couple of episodes of an anime Tendou-senpai said he ‘must’ see”

When he laid down in his bed, the full force of the day’s events comes to him. He couldn’t believe he met Terushima, let alone talked to him. Even when he wasn’t flying up walls, he still seemed like a free spirit ready to spread his playful aura to others. The way he spoke had a upbeat rhythm and his laugh – oh gods , his laugh!- reminds him of the sound of a successful spike hitting the court’s floor. Exciting, powerful, that makes him proud for having earned it and fills him with a feeling of warm and fiery accomplishment.

He toss and turns in his bed and the cold pillow mildly cooled his red-hot face. Now he knew where his……crush –he cringes at how fast he admits it- works and even that his friends seem to know him too. And ! he said  that Tsutomu was cute. Now that there weren’t any distractions ,his thoughts were a storm. Did he wink at all his customers and called them such endearments? He frowned at that but them scolded himself. He had no right of even thinking of feeling jealous about a person he knows for less than 5 minutes. That was a job for the person who is dating Terushima… if they existed ? Perhaps being this flirty is something that he does when he is single and looking for someone..? Does Tsutomu have a real chance?

That’s it! He has practice tomorrow morning and he cannot afford spending his night thinking about stuff that he probably makes up. He thinks about volleyball and minutes after he falls asleep.

**

 After Friday’s practice, he headed to the place when Kiyoko-san told him they ae hiring. She sent him the address of the convenience store that is two blocks away from ‘180 degrees’ and seem to be in need of someone to help.

When he arrived at the entrance there are customers still doing their groceries and entered slowly. He goes to the counter and asked the employee here about the job. She just nodded towards the door with the sign ‘staff only’ and continues assisting a costumer. He took a deep breath in hopes he relaxed and knocked softly at the door. He heard a voice telling him to come in and he saw no one at the office when he took a seat.

“I am so sorry dear, do you need something?”  a woman walked past him and sat and the manager’s chair. She is a beautiful woman in her late twenties  with long strawberry blonde hair, clear blue- grey eyes and a beauty mark under the right side of her mouth. He blushed when she crosses her arms and was emphasized how endowed she is.

“A friend of mine said you are hiring someone so I’d like to apply for the job please!” he said in his best professional voice and bows his head slightly.

The woman stared at him intently for what seemed like years before she ordered him to stand up. At his confused stare , she repeated herself and he didn’t think twice.

He was standing in the middle of the room and the woman was circling around him like a lioness does to her prey. He noticed that she is taller than almost all the women he has met and comes up a little over his shoulder

“Do you do any sports or work out ?” she questioned him.

“I am at the university’s volleyball team ma’am” he exclaims. She stared at him again  and when he is sure she was going to kick him out, she beamed.

“oooh a volleyball player! How exciting! Now sit, sit! You’ve passed my first test but I still have questions to ask you!”

The atmosphere changed dramatically for the better after that and the questions the lady asked were about what he studies at the university, his timeline , if he was okay with doing both manual labour and costumer service and working at nights.

“Well with a build like yours I would be stupid if I didn’t hire you! At the first few weeks we will mostly need help unloading the new products and storing them at the storehouse or at the selves. Sometimes during that time you may need to assist some late soul that comes in but there will be someone with you until you close. But after the seasonal change you’ll mostly do cashier duty. Unfortunately I can’t offer a lot of money but don’t you worry! I can offer you a large discount on everything you buy, as long as you don’t go too crazy in there, okay? You seem like a sweet kid so I trust that you won’t! So ... What do you say?”  she finished with a charming smile.

“Y-YES MA’AM! THANK YOU MA’AM !” he thanked her, thrilled at his luck.

She winces but still kept her smile “ok dear, first of all, do not call me ma’am, do I look that old to you ?” she asked rhetorically but he still shook his head frantically and she giggled.

“Aww it’s fine ! You didn’t know, so I forgive you. My name’s is Rangiku Matsumoto, so call me Rangiku and I am gonna call you Tsutomu , okay sweetie?” he repeated his previous action.

“Perfect! You are a college student in a sports team so I get that you don’t have many hours to yourself. Then I’ll put you at the night shift on week days! So can you start tomorrow afternoon?”  he agreed again.

“Okay then! See you tomorrow dear!” she said smiling before he left.

He sighed in relief. That was overwhelming, he thought to himself as he stretched his shoulders. He didn’t think he would be so fortunate to be hired for the job and on top of that getting paid in both money and groceries!

He had to call his mom to tell her the news!

**

The next day started with him waking up later than usual, as he didn’t have to practice at weekends, he went for an hour long jog and ate breakfast. After that he followed his weekly clean up and laundry at the common washing machines at the basement. He did small talk with some of the neighbours, a really pretty florist who recommended some cheap and easy to care flowers for his apartment so that it appeared more welcoming and a middle aged woman who somehow learned about him playing at the university team and tells him that she and her family were rooting for them. He thanked them and continued his day by doing homework and calling Yachi to exchange notes.

He also messaged back Semi-senpai, who was apologizing for not replying earlier, he was still in vacation, and told him about the reunion that Tendou-senpai is planning and that would probably be back in their hometown in the holidays, when everyone was available and known to be back by then. He felt warm that his senpai were still considering him ad keeping touch even after they all graduated and he wasn’t their responsibility anymore.

When he arrived at the convenience store that afternoon, Rangiku wasn’t here. The other employee that was there told him that she didn’t make a habit of staying those  hours and that she was in charge of helping him learn the ropes. Arisawa Tatsuki is the only other employee that was willing to work the last shift. When he asked why others didn’t she responded that there were many drunk people walking around and sometimes it could be dangerous.

“But I am a national karate champion so if they try something, I will kick their sorry asses to the hospital.” She declared with a feral grin and he was both impressed and slightly terrified.

The job now was pretty easy to learn and Arisawa-san showed him how to unpack boxes with fragile content and in which aisle everything went. She also  gave him a basic lesson on customer service in case it was needed. She ended up leaving him alone for the last half an hour of their shift as she has to catch the last bus to go home after she taught him how to lock the store and where to put they keys after he left.  She apologized when she realized that he didn’t know about it and informed him that she will always leave that time as she leaves far away and only that bus can take her home in one ride.

“If Rangiku hired you then you must be a good kid, so I know you won’t try something. But just in case you bet your ass I’ll find you. Put the keys where I told you and they will find them there in the morning. You did good today and I’ll see you tomorrow” she praised him as they said their goodbyes.

He locked up carefully and placed the key at where Arisawa –san told him and started heading towards the station.

On his way, he started hearing voices from what he noticed was the ‘180 degrees’ café and the voices started getting louder to the point they were just shouts.

He rushed over to see what’s happening and ready to help when the scene came up in front of him.

He saw two young men laying at the ground unconscious and Terushima standing there in his uniform, cracking his knuckles.  He squeaked in surprise when Terushima turned to him with a smile.

“Oh! Goshiki-kun! It’s been a while, huh?” he asked nonchalantly.

“Terushima-san what is going on here?!” he exclaimed in a high voice, obviously talking about the two men lying on the alley next to the shop.

“Oh, that. Just that these two drunk assholes tried to have a beef with me while I was closing the shop, so I took care of it .” He stepped closer and Tsutomu could now see that his hands were injured, probably from punching them.

“Your hands are bleeding!” he rushed over to him and took out a bottle of water to disinfect the wounds.

“Don’t worry man! I have a first aid kit inside. I know how to handle this! It’s not like it’s my first time or something.” He winked.

“Oh that’s a relief!” he exhaled in relief. “not that it wasn’t your first time of course!” he corrected.

“Now that you came here like the knight in the shining armor and found no damsel to save, off you go!” he tried to shoo him away but Tsutomu was not taking a step further.

“I will wait for you to close the shop and walk with you at the station.” He said firmly.

“Come on! That’s not necessary! Besides isn’t it out of your way or something?” Terushima tried to convince him otherwise.

“Two people walking together is better than one. And I am sure the bus station is in my way, so you don’t have to worry about me Terushima-san!” he smiled at the other boy’s consideration, oblivious to the other’s obvious try to make him leave.

The latter held his gaze, perhaps looking for signs of lying but when he seemed to find none, he sighed deeply.

“Wait here five minutes. I have to get changed and lock up.” And he went back inside leaving an ecstatic Tsutomu behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Rangiku and Tatsuki from Bleach! My all time favourite anime/manga! I love it very much, with all its flaws and everything! I was pretty sad when it ended, and especially with all the backstage things I heard that happened, but if mr. Kubo made his decision, I understand and respect that, and I thank him for every experience I lived with his creation all those years since I started it (with is 5 years almost?) 
> 
> In the future I plan to write fic(s) for Bleach (alternative universe of course, i wouldn't dare touch canon) and I already have ideas! I am also thinking of having a tumbrl in the future but i am hesitant as I am not really the most exciting person to follow, so that's off the question for now.
> 
> I hope you come again for the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A walk to remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ciao bella gente! I'm back with another chapter! I'm starting to keep the schedule on my updates as in a month and a half I have midterms and I want to have prepared chapters for you to enjoy! I am really nervous about my exams but I won't stress you about it further. For those who are on the same track, Buena Suerte! I know I will need it. 
> 
> Speaking of things I am nervous by.... Terushima. I have little to work with this guy and wikia was my one constant opened tab while writing this. I have his character formed in my mind, by I don't know if the chapter will be a good one as it has much dialogue and I probably suck at writing... BUT THAT'S OKAY! I am a happy idiot who gets all giddy for creating something I like. 
> 
> So... onwards to the chapter! Hope you'll like it as much as I did!

His heart was fluttering with each step he took. He dared to steal a glance to the boy beside him and marvel how the cold autumn breeze made his hair float like silk and his cheeks slightly red. The distance between them was small but seems like they were on the opposite sides of the country from the awkwardness. He dig up his mind to find something to break the ice.

This was his chance of making a good impression and he didn’t want to mess up by letting go nor by saying something stupid. So he tried the first thing that was bothering him.

“Is your hand okay, Terushima-san?” his eyes went to the bandage around his right hand where it was slightly damp with blood.

“Yeah.. it’s fine, it doesn’t even hurt!” the boy in question waved the hand to show it.

“You said it happens often….” Tsutomu started  hesitantly but let the question float in the air.

“Yeah.. sometimes it’s someone causing an episode at the bar, sometimes people try to make a pass at me, or both. What can I say? Being a bartender is not that easy.” He laughed like it was a joke.

“But it’s dangerous!” he exclaimed loudly, without thinking and few people turned to briefly look at them curiously.

“I have taken care of myself all those times. It’ll be fine.” Terushima said in a clipped tone and gave him a annoyed glance.

But Tsutomu wasn’t having it. If every time he worked, such things were happening, someone might have held a grudge against him and then Tsutomu didn’t want to even think what might happen. He had to do something to at least ensure the other didn’t get attacked at night! It did not matter if he had a crush on this guy , it was the right thing to do.

“Then I will come and pick you up every night when you are closing and take you to the station! Like tonight!” he announced and looked at the other with steely conviction.

Terushima stopped walking and stared at him while crossing his arms on his chest.

“Look, no offence but I can take care of myself. It’s none of your business who tries to pick a fight with me or not!” his voice raises slightly but he is not shouting.

“If a friend is in trouble, I have to do something to help! The least I can do is to walk with you for a while so no one can attack you while you are alone!” he tried to reason with Terushima. He felt a little nervous whether he jumped to conclusions by saying they were friends but if this went well, he is going to try his hardest for that word to be official and be closer to him. He wasn’t sure if this was what was called ‘ulterior motives’ but as the other stayed silent for more seconds than necessary, just looking at him, he started to second guess himself.

Terushima looked like he had more to say but in the end of the torturously long pause and stare down, he just asked with a defeated yet gentle expression

“You are really gonna do this to someone who you’ve met just one?”

Twice, Tsutomu wanted to correct but all he did was nod frantically.

“Then let’s go. If we stay any longer will freeze our asses off”

“But it’s still September Terushima-san.” Tsutomu said confused.

“Shut up! I get cold easily so don’t judge me!” he huffed in response while shuddering a little

_He is really cute when he is like that_ , he thought. He is glad he didn’t seem mad at him anymore and didn’t hesitate to joke with him. _And he gets cold easily_ , he notes that mentally in case he needs it in the hopeful future.

The walk continued in a comfortable silence. As much as Tsutomu wanted to start spouting questions, he found it hard to break the ease in the air by possibly overwhelming Terushima. They were standing a little closer due to the narrow path they were passing through in between other stores, but the latter’s presence is all the more inviting. It must be the friendly and approachable aura that attracted him and possibly he was not the only one. Terushima gave the first impression of someone that made friend left and right and was always remembered and greeted wherever he went. Part of it must be his appearance as not many people had that many piercings, dyed hair and, according to his biased opinion, have that kind of unique beauty. The opposite kind that the majority described. They described someone pale, fragile and ethereal like a nymph but Terushima is dynamic, wild and unexpected, like lightning. His eyes shone with humour and the urge to explore, to not be bound but rules and just have fun enjoying everything that came in his way.

In some degree, that worried Tsutomu. From what he had seen and heard tonight, sometimes he can be reckless with no sense of danger, making a target of himself for every person that is fascinated by him.

He wanted to make sure that it never happens.

“Here we are!” the announcement pulled him out of his thought and he turned to look and the subject of his thoughts. “You’re gonna wait with me here too ??” he asks like he already know the answer.

“Of course! I told you that I will and I don’t go back on my word” he insisted, puffing his chest proudly.

“I had the feeling you’d say that. You seem like the type.”

“what type?” the worry of being an nuisance to the other returned in his mind.

“The puppy dog one. The one that’s loyal despite everything and befriends total strangers and walks them home.” he hummed “don’t be so scared, I am teasing ya!” Tesushima laughed at seeing Tsutomu’s face.

“Terushima-san! You are not a total stranger! You know Kiyoko-san and Yachi well and they like you, so that’s enough reason for me to trust you!”

“ah yes, Megane-chan and Yachi-chan, we go waaay back! Do you know how we know each other?” Tsutomu shook his head instead of answering , eager to know.

“She was the manager of one of the volleyball teams we played against and lost at one tournament. I tried to flirt but I guess she was too into Yachi to bother.” He fake-complained.

Tsutomu’s eyes went wide with excitement.

“YOU PLAY?!” he shouted happily.

“Woah, calm down, yeah I played in a team in miyagi”

“I played there too! Which team where you?!”

“I was in Johzenji…. Wait do you play too ?”

“Yes! I am on scholarship here and at the university team! I was in Shiratorizawa!” Tsutomu was feeling light as air at the familiar and now common subject between them.

Terushima whistled “You were at the big-shots who go every year at the national, huh?”

“Well not every year, we lost to Karasuno  too in my first year…”

“Well, I am sure you didn’t let that get to you!” he teased him lightly.

“Of course not, the next year we went to the nationals and placed third! So… what position where you playing?” he asked, eager to know more.

“I was  a wing spiker and a captain at my second and third year but that stuck because no one else wanted to do it.” Terushima’s words made his mood dampen a little .

“Why? Being captain is a great responsibility to bear”

“We weren’t very good so we never went to the nationals, at least when I was in the team. But we weren’t playing very seriously either. We didn’t have a play and were trying new techniques in the middle of an official game at least we surprised our opponents and that was hilarious to watch.”

He sighed “but after the match with Karasuno, our managers scolded our asses off and after that we tried our best , but I guess it just wasn’t enough. No wonder you haven’t heard of us. Hotshots don’t really bother with every little team in their territory”  

He was smiling sadly when he was talking and the teasing was visibly forced and Tsutomu felt even more sad. To know that your best was not enough was a horrid feeling which he unfortunately had a few times in high school but luckily overcame with intense determination and practice.

“Hey, don’t get all sad puppy on me! It’s fine! I mean I miss the guys but I would change a thing about it.”

“Why don’t you play at the university’s team?”  

“Because the constant pressure was gonna make me hate volleyball. I have a feeling of what you must do to be on that level but I am not committed enough for such effort. For me, volleyball is a really fun thing to do with friends and be free to laugh and do stupid stunts and the constant competition would ruin that for me. Sorry to disappoint you.”

“You did not!” he said earnestly. Terushima’s confession made Tsutomu see him with another light. He knew what he enjoyed and how he enjoyed it and the fact that he was mature enough to recognize what volleyball meant for him and leave from any form of official competition instead of blindly rushing in and hating it on the way and then doing it as a chore showed Tsutomu what an amazing and thoughtful person Terushima was and it made his heart skip a lot of beats.

“So! Enough about me! Tell me what was Shiratorizawa like! Like I know it’s a big shot school for prodigies but other than that, I got nada.” He turned the subject.

Tsutomu’s eyes brightened and his voice was full of admiration while he talked about his years at the Academy. From the skills of his senpais (he avoided saying about his crush on Semi-senpai for obvious reasons), to the match against Karasuno on his first year to the teams they played with or against and how he became the ace in his second and then captain of the team in his third year . Time seemed to slow down when he was with Terushima like this and he couldn’t be happier right now.

But all good things came to an end. And the end of his mood came in the form of the bus Terushima waited for. He kind of forgot why he was here as he was flying with happiness and now he is back at the earth.  The shift seems to be noticeable as Terushima put a hand on his shoulder with a chuckle.

“Come on! Cheer up! We’ll see each other tomorrow, right ?” he asked and with his good hand gave him a light push on his side.

“But I thought you didn—”

“I know what I said… but I guess you are not that bad! Also Kiyoko might bury me alive if I hurt her precious friend so I have no choice. I will start closing the store a little slower so it is sure that we meet. See ya!”  he boarded the bus and waved at him from the window.

The only thing Tsutomu could do was wear an ear-splitting grin and wave back until the bus was out of his sight.

On the train ride home, all he was feeling was bliss. The fact that Terushima-san was willing to disturd his rhythm, even for a few minutes, just for them to meet with certainty was making his stomach turn in anticipation even if they saw each other minutes ago! He thought about the team he was playing and is feeling a bit of disappointment that they didn’t meet earlier. But he felt oddly relieved too. High school was the time when he was infatuated with Semi-senpai, the majority of his first year being the before confession period when the crush was stronger. Maybe if he met Terushima at the court he wouldn’t have given him a second glance, firstly because at a volleyball game all he thought about is solely volleyball and due to his already existing crush he would have been blinded from paying attention to someone else. He would have missed the chance to meet someone incredible and wonderful who made him feel so much in so little time! Maybe one day when he has a match he would invite Terushima to come and watch in hopes he would be impressed by his constantly polishing skills. Maybe he would get a pat in the back or, even better, a hug at the end of the match, as celebration if they won or in consolation if they lost. Not that he intended to lose! From today onwards he has another person to impress so he will put even more effort at practice! 

He just hopes that Terushima will still be his friend, as he said to the man himself –he turns lobster red even at the thought of being in another type of relationship with him- until then. But he didn’t want to be greedy and pressure the blonde with his feelings too early. He doesn’t even know if Terushima liked guys or not, so he would appreciate what they were beginning to have.

He arrived home at what he felt like a blink of an eye and got undressed in a daze. He fell asleep with a new goal, a wildfire of determination and a dopey smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was it?? Mediocre, Not that bad or Terrible?  
> The next update will be in two weeks more or less. If you want to read more from me-not that I have much anyway- check out my KnB fic (shameless self-promotion here) "If we ever meet again". It's a MuraHimu AU.  
> In case you are wondering, I do not plan on letting this ship go. I want to write more of those two and I believe in some point of my life I will write a good long fic. I have ideas of accompaning this fic with a couple of one shots (maybe) and writing AUs... I will report you my thought progress on this in the next notes.  
> I hope you come back for the next chapter! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Did you miss me? I'm here with the new chapter! I added a few tags that show the slowish burn because I am writing the 9th chapter and it's slooow. And i've thought until the 11th or 12th and it's still sloooow. Literally, nothing happens here expept Goshiki being adorkable and overthinking. Oh! and crushing.  
> But I don't want to rush it. It's my first multi-chaptered fic and I'm still learning the ropes on how to make a good story. That and I am in a bit of a slump because that ninth chapter I mentioned is in my archives unfinished for two weeks or more. Maybe it's the pressure of midterms that make me anxious and I hope I get over it after i'm done with them in February. So I will update the chapters so that I have time to write without delaying too much and at the same time you get your chapters.  
> Maybe I will write some one-shots as I have lots of ideas now that I have a little free time until the midterms start in mid January. I won't let myself give up on writing again, now that I've picked it up again. 
> 
> Feedback is always welcome, let me know what do you think of this chapter! Leave a comment or a Kudo if you want.  
> Enjoy the chapter!

The next weeks pass by peacefully yet exciting. The weather has lost the last remains of summer and replaced them with rainy days, chilling cold nights and a few windy moments in between as now is towards the middle of November. Tsutomu is okay with winter, as he is with every season as the all have their perks. The heat-relieving foods and drinks give their place to warm beverages, the possibility of snowing is always expected yet unexpected and people of all ages are childishly playing with the frozen mist of their breaths. Tsutomu is proudly guilty of that.

He is having the time of his life right now. The winter games are approaching slowly but steadily and practice is getting brutal. But he doesn’t mind. It means they are going to face strong universities of the area and that makes his blood boil in anticipation. Unfortunately he won’t be facing his former senpai as they live too far away for their universities to even think of playing together. He’s a little disappointed because he wanted to experience being on Ushijima-senpai’s  opponent side or anticipating Semi-senpai’s serves. They must have gotten stronger over time and he wanted to prove to them that he has as well.

But his new team has now become a huge part of him, and even if it’s been a couple of months, he wants to believe that he fits in with his teamantes.  Sometimes they organize group studies to help each other, mostly to keep them from failing and not being able to play in official matches. Tsutomu will be forever to Fukunaga- senpai for helping him with a part of his Japanese literature which had him almost ruining a good notebook from too much scribbling. Other times, they go out after practice and just hang out as friends and the air is comfortable and friendly.

Kiyoko, Yachi , Kanji-kun and him have formed their own group of friends and it made him full of happiness to know that he had such great people to generally be with. They are often going to the cinema in which Yachi had recently found a job and a week earlier there was a concert of Kiyoko’s favourite electronic band performing at the city’s outskirts and she’d gotten tickets for all of them. Although he wasn’t a fan of the genre, having fun with his friends outweighed that. On many weekdays, it’s just the first years studying together for their common subjects while Kiyoko was with her fellow classmates doing the same. The three of them exchanged notes from times that one was absent and revised in a table full of textbooks either in the university’s library or in someone’s house. Tsutomu was pretty confident that if he keeps up, he will pass all of January’s midterms.

His job has gotten a tad busier as he had to pack the summer foods and products and replace them all with winter goods. That meant that whole aisles had to be replaced at a short time, before the costumers start complaining. Luckily, he had Tatsuki-san’s help, otherwise they might have taken more nights than wanted. Many times even Rangiku stays to help arrange the shop telling them were everything goes along with stories about her husband Gin, who she’s known since childhood and got together at their college years after going in different high schools and losing touch and their toddler son, Toshiro. Rangiku rants about how good is Gin at housework when she almost caused a fire in an attempt on baking a birthday cake for him (he mentions some of his mother’s adventures in the kitchen as consolation making her beam in relief) and how her son might be a genius as he can do math past his level and has a scarily good memory. She gushes on about how serious he is for a three-year-old and how she might bring him here to ‘meet my other children of course’.

Tatsuki and him were not saying much during her rants as it was in a way relaxing to hear such happy stories. But sometimes they also speaking about themselves, him about his team and university life – sometimes he mentions Terushima too but he doesn’t want to risk being too obvious as even he himself understands the kind of tone he speaks about him- and Tatsuki about the dojo she plans to open when she graduate this year with a Physical educator’s degree and the years long experience in martial arts as well as about her friends who finally got together to everyone’s exasperation and are now living together at their home town.

After work, he goes to pick up Terushima to walk him to the station like the past two weeks of their night meetings. Tsutomu has long lost any battle of trying to keep his heart of fluttering every time he smiles or laughs and weakly trying to convince himself that his crush will go away, like the others have.  Terushima, after learning that Tsutomu is a year younger than him, started telling him to call him Yuuji to establish a better relationship as a great senpai to his junior (they settled at Yuuji-san after the clash of Tsutomu’s fired up respect for a senpai and Terushima’s mind-bending puppy eyes).

Their conversations had an easy flow, like they knew each other for longer than a couple of weeks. Tsutomu learned that the reason he didn’t find Yuuji-san when he was searching for him that first week was because his major’s building was in the opposite direction from Terushima’s who was at the arts building studying graphic design. His father was his biggest inspiration to study that as he was a successful graphic designer himself, with his own office, which is going to inherit when he has make a name of his own.

“I don’t want people to think I got help from my old man to be good at my job so I am going to work hard to shut them up.” He had said firmly and Tsutomu didn’t think he could get any cooler than that.

Unlike Tsutomu, who was an only child, he had a big family of 2 elder brothers and two elder sisters, all of which still living with their parents as their house was huge due to his father’s business and his mother’s, a celebrity’s PR executive, job.  He had started working at the coffee shop at his first year, always at the same shift as the manager saw that he could pack a good punch in cause of an episode like the one Tsutomu saw.

As much as he was enjoying their talks, a huge part of him wanted to see Yuuji-san outside of that routine, during the day. He wanted to walk together by the stores or maybe go to see a movie or do stuff together like he and his friend do….

_Or like going on a date_ , his traitorous thoughts taunted him.

_I would not be a date!_ he tried to reason. Firstly, he still doesn’t know if Yuuji-san is interested in guys and even if he is, he may not be interested in him. Secondly, he realized one day while daydreaming in class _he didn’t even have Yuuji-san’s number!_

Neither of them asked each other their contact information.

Maybe they forgot.

But maybe Yuuji-san doesn’t consider close enough to be his friend!

But, could he really blame him? Tsutomu knows he is too persistent sometimes and not everybody likes that. Maybe Yuuji san doesn’t like having him around after all… But, at the end of their first meeting at the ‘180 degrees’ he said that he wasn’t bad and continued walking with him. And he told him so many things about himself…

He groaned, forgetting that he was still in class. He looked around and saw a few students glaring at him and Yachi next to him looking at him worriedly as it wasn’t often to space out during class. He just gave her a small dismissive wave to show that everything was fine and started actually paying attention to class. It was pointless to overthink about this. The only solution was to ask Yuuji-san for his number and the rest will depend on his answer.

But before he can realize, the day passes and he’s at work, fidgeting and trying to find a way to ask the question that he’s hesitating to ask for days. Maybe he didn’t want to be faced with a negative answer or maybe—

“Hey lamppost! What’s taking so long ?!” he heard Tatsuki-san shouting from the storage room.

“Nothing Tatsuki-san! Please don’t worry!” he shouted back.

She came out of the storage room with two heavy-looking boxes ready to be unloaded , placed them beside them and starting unpacking.

“Here, put everything I am giving you up the top shelf. At least with you we don’t need a ladder..” she grumbled while giving him boxes of cereal to put.

The process has become almost mechanical and so his went back to his thoughts. Would he be too pushy if he asked for his number? Was it too soon ? with his teammates and friends they exchanged numbers fairly early and Yuuji-san seems to be a very social person. But he doesn’t want to judge from what he sees , maybe the reality is different.

A sharp nudge came to his abdomen making him draw a shallow breath.

“Are you listening to me kid?” Tatsuki-san asked while taking position for another attack .

“I AM VERY SORRY!” he apologized and bowed as well as he could with his slightly hurting abdomen “what did you say again?”

She sighed “I said that those were the last boxes for this aisle and we have few more so we can leave early. What’s wrong with you?”

“what do you mean?”  he looked everywhere but at her expression so to hide his “I am perfectly fine, Tatsuki-san”

“The hell you are! you’ve been like you have worms in your pants and you spaced out  just now. What’s wrong ?”

He hesitated. He didn’t want to trouble her with his problems but he could use some advice. Deciding he finally looked at her and at his surprise , she wasn’t angry but worried.

“Tatsuki-san, how can you tell that somebody wants to be your friend?” he asked with a small voice.

“Is someone bulling you? Tell me and me an’ Rangiku  will make them black and blue!” was her immediate response and cold sweat came over him.

“No no no no no no no!! it’s not that I swear! It’s just that I am hanging out with someone and want to be their friend but I don’t know if they want to…..” he said quickly while heat came to his face.

“You mean the guy you are seeing after work and you are too gay for?” she said in a matter-of-fact tone and he squawked out of embarrassment “don’t even try to deny that, kid, I saw you with my own two eyes.”  She looked amused at seeing him turn red as a tomato

“W-w-w-when did- y-” “I lost the bus that day and stayed at a friend in the area and while I was heading here I saw you making googly eyes at the dude and almost sparkling , it was pretty disgusting” the response was immediate.

He flinched and looked down at the floor. He didn’t know what would his co-workers think about him liking another boy and hearing that answer left him emotionally naked and hurt.

Tatsuki-san seems to realize her mistake by watching what she could of his expression and rewinding her words. Her eyes widened.

“Fuck, no , I didn’t ---- fucking shit, I didn’t mean it that way , I meant—no, shit wait – okay” she took a deep breath “let’s do this again .” she mumbled to herself.

“Hey kid, look at me” she said softly and Tsutomu did. He saw the regret in her eyes and the open posture “look I didn’t mean what I said…. I am sorry.. I don’t think it’s disgusting you liking another dude… but we didn’t mention any of this shit so I spoke out of my ass … I am sorry , please forgive me?” she pleaded at him and open her arms for a hug but she didn’t step forward, she was waiting for him.

He could tell by watching her that she meant it and accepted her hug. It was a bit awkward due to their significant height difference but all he felt was warmth.

“I forgive you Tatsuki-san” he said with his head buried on her shoulder.

“Come on, will finish this up tomorrow. Now sit with me and tell me everything that bothering you.” She patted his head.

“But don’t you have a bus to catch?” he let her go.

“I’ll just stay over at my friend’s anyway…She owes me a lot after all.”

And so with half an hour left until they close, he told her everything that happened with Yuuji-san from the first one-sided meeting to his current problem.

“So…. You wanna ask the dude’s number but you’re scared that he’ll say no because …you think he doesn’t want to hang out other times of the day ?” she stated his problems in a question and he vigorously nodded.

“That’s stupid! If the guy even closes the shop later to meet up, he surely thinks you are okay to hang around. I mean, he doesn’t avoid you or thinks you are a creep sooooo… go for it.” She advised him.

“You really think so?” he titled his head in question.

 “Of course! If it’s not like that then he’s a huge dick , dragging you around like that.”

“You think he noticed my ...you know…?”

“complete crush on him? … nah … from what you said he doesn’t seem the type to leave people hanging.” She smirked  and checked the clock on the wall. “well it’s time to close so you’ll have your answer soon. And don’t back down lamppost! The more you wonder , the worse.” he stood up and exhaled in determination “I will Tatsuki-san! Thank you very much!”

“Oh! And just so you know, this all will be reported back to Rangiku. Now you are basically her son, so get ready the next time you see her. Good luck!” she winked at him and left.  He didn’t know how to respond to that statement.

He arrived at ‘180 dergrees’ and waited outside, watched the last of the patrons leave. After a little Yuuji-san emerged wearing his casual clothes. A long black coat with black skinny jeans and brown high boots that made his legs look even longer than they were.

“Sup Go-kun! I’ll be here in a sec.” he said and Tsutomu blushed like every time he hears the nickname he was given.

Once the lock up was done they started their usual walk towards the station.

“How was your day Yuuji-san?” he started.

“Pretty good, It’s still Wednesday so there are not many costumers. But a small bar fight broke out, but nothing I couldn’t handle so I count that as a win. Yours ?” he answers while kicking a pebble with his boot.

“It was fine, we are almost done with the heavy work so in a few days we’ll have much less work to do. but are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

“I’m fine, we stopped them before they could land a hit or grab something sharp. But man, I’m jealous of you! Getting paid AND getting free food for working a few hours a week while I must smell like alcohol from working too many hour at the bar!” he complained with a pout and while he tried not to stare so obviously, Tsutomu marvelled at how full his lips are.  

“You don’t like your job ?” he asked, trying to distract himself.

“I can’t say I don’t like it, but it was not my first choice. I wanted to work at the sports centre a few blocks away from campus but there were full of student applications” he sighed.

“There is a sports centre here?” he wondered why he didn’t know about that before, it probably wasn’t in his way so he never noticed.

Apparently Yuuji-san wondered the same thing  as he exclaimed in a surprised tone “Seriously? You didn’t even hear about it! I guess you practice at the campus’ court so that explains it a bit. But still you have to go!”

“Oka—” he was cut off .

“You know what, I’ll take you there! As a senpai and the one who first told you, I will take responsibility! So will go there on a day we both have time.” He said as if it was universal knowledge.

Tsutomu just stared at him with his jaw dropped. How can he say that so casually when he has been overthinking this whole thing for days! But that also means that Tatsuki-san was right and this might be his chance on getting to see him more.

“I-I’d like that Yuuji-san.” He smiled. The red on his cheeks is from the cold and not at all from blushing.

“Perfect! Gimme your number so I can text you the day .” he pulled out his phone and give it to him.

This was happening! With a trembling hand and a wide grin on his face he tapped the numbers on the screen and gave it back to Yuuji-san. He takes it back and in a matter of seconds he receives a message.

“Thank you Yuuji-san!” he grinned.

“It’s no problem! That’s what friends are for, right?” the older grinned back at him. His eyes were shining from the moonlight, his cheeks and ears were red from the cold, the gentle wind brushing his hair softly away from his face.  

Tsutomu’s heart swelled in happiness and pride that it was him who made Yuuji-san smile like that.

And he found himself greedy to see more. His mind and heart agreed on that one thing. On the fact that this friendship would be one of the most magnificent and at the same time, one of the most painful things he will face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just hanging out with a crush, nothing special!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEI EVERYONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU! I hope your holidays were amazing and that the new year is better than the last!  
> Fuck you 2016 - me, the moment 2017 came.
> 
> I spend my New Year's.... studying. And I'm supposed to be doing that right now too, but i wanted to post something today! And because I haven't written anything since my Bleach fic (and that was complete for a week and only needed 300 words or so) I update this! 
> 
> And because I have exams till the 10th of February, I will post when I finish me first exam on the 17th of Jan and maybe on the 10th of February and then I will start writing again because the ready chapters are done by then. I'm still in the middle of chapter 9 and while i have gotten over my minor block on this fic, i haven't written anything beyond that. AND i want to write me other ideas! I've tons of ideas and no time to write any of them now! my fingers are itching! 
> 
> Leave a comment of a Kudo if you want! (Constructive criticism is always welcomed!) From now on i will answer the comments on this fic because I feel like a douche that I didn't before! My anxienty is not an excuse to be rude!  
> For those that have commented on this fic, thank you from the bottom of my heart!
> 
> I hope you enjoy the chapter!

“Fukunaga, nice receive !”  the captain yelled as the ball went up. When it went in Kazumata –senpai’s view he set it at a high height and Fukunaga –senpai spiked it to the left. From the other side Shibayama caught it sending it up again towards Komaki-senpai who set it in position for Asamushi-senpai to do a crossed spike. It was received by Nakashika-senpai and was set to Tsutomu. He jumped high and did a straight spike in the gap between the middle blocker, thus scoring a point for their team.

“Nice kill Goshiki!” the upperclassmen congratulated him and he felt adrenaline and pride in his veins. He smiled at them.

“How was that captain?” he asked eagerly.

“Pretty solid but you’ve got to do better than that if you want to become the ace.”  Nakashika-senpai smirked.

“Hey now, don’t push the kid so far Takeru.” Kazumata-senpai sighed tiredly as he drank from his water bottle.

“I will do my best!”  he ignored the vice-captain’s words and went back to the court to resume the practice game.

He managed to receive successfully a, not good enough for him, number of spikes from the other team and to spike some more, focusing to practice on everything he could. He didn’t do bad at the serves either. Some of them had too much force but he easily learned how to handle that. Over the years he managed to a significant degree to polish his strengths very well and he wanted to show that whenever he could whether it was practice or an official game.

When their match ended with his team winning by three points, Yachi and Kiyoko were waiting on them with cool but not freezing water and their towels.

“Good work Goshiki-kun!” Yachi smiled at him as she gave him his bottle and he nodded, still panting from the intensity.

“Yeah Goshiki you were on fire today! Too much energy to spent?” Asamushi- senpai asked.

“I am always that way, senpai.”

“Not today! Something is going on! I can feel it!”

“Lay off Asamushi, that feeling of yours is just bullshit” Komaki-senpai deadpanned.

“What the hell, Komaki. That’s not true.”

“The last time you had a feeling like that,  you started betting that Kazumata’s little sister was actually his daughter!” Fukunaga-senpai nodded at Komaki senpai’s words.

“What the hell Asamushi? Why would I lie about my little sister?”

“In my defence, Vice , with the way you fawn over her, one would assume that---”

“And the first thing you thought was that?!”

“Well, maybe if you shaved a little you wouldn’t look like a middle aged man!”

“I show you middle aged you—”

Tsutomu tuned out from the rest, laughing at his senpais’s little spat. He looked around to everyone else, seeing that some were holding their laughter , with the exception of the captain who was trying to separate the two.

He turned to the managers and saw that both girls looked at him with suspicious looks and he flushed. Luckily he was still red in the face and breathing hard from practice so it wasn’t noticeable.

Internally, he exhaled in relief as he dodged a potential questioning from his curious senpai. He was partially telling the truth on saying that he was always like that, because in every practice he puts 110% of him out there. But today in particular he had a reason other than that.

The reason being that in less than five hours, he would be spending his Friday night with Yuuji-san at the sports centre. He told Tsutomu the previous night that he could have the day off and asked if Tsutomu was available also.

Without thinking he said yes and then settled to meet outside the centre whose address he received the following day in a text.  .

It was in the middle of today’s psychology class that he remembered he actually had to work that night. In between classes he shamefully called Rangiku to request the night off as he had plans and he will definitely substitute the shift he lost.

But to his embarrassment, Rangiku only laughed and told him not to worry and that he has fun on his date, which caused him to sputter that it’s not a date and hanging up before she said anything worse. Apparently Tatsuki-san wasn’t kidding.

He still hasn’t told his friends about his meeting with Yuuji-san, probably keeping them apart and not subjecting them to the drama he unwillingly created for himself.

By no means did it mean that he wasn’t nervous or ecstatic about tonight. It is easy for him to make friends and be comfortable with the people who he chooses to hang out but that was a different subject.  He had feelings that were in the way of this new friendship. And although he hopes that they will go away eventually like with Semi-senpai, he had doubts.

Doubts based on the fact that Yuuji-san’s smile made his heart sing every time, unlike before. On the fact that he couldn’t stay away even if he wanted to and that he turned to volleyball as an escape which has never happened before! He played with his team, his opponents and himself in his mind, never with the excuse of a complete outsider. And it made him feel guilty, like he was tainting something he devotedly loves by using it as a mere distraction.

But all he could do is hide his feelings, act like he always does and see which way it goes.

When he arrived home, he saw that he had 3 hours until they meet. So, with no rush, he made a simple dish to eat and worked on some his Psychology report. When it was time to start preparing he took a second look at the clothes he had picked the night before.

Yes, he did spend time picking the correct clothes and he spend a lot of time doing it as he wasn’t able to sleep while thinking about it. It was a simple pair of black jeans with a dark red hoodie and a casual black jacket. Yuuji-san told him to dress comfortably but he didn’t want to go underdressed for their meeting.  He quickly got dressed , put his good black sneakers on and left.

The way to the centre wasn’t  as long as he imagined. It was mostly going through many different streets but it was a twenty minute walk and a ten minute bus ride once he knew where to go.  He arrived at the centre five minutes early and waited for Yuuji-san to arrive with an anxious heart. While he was waiting he was trying to steel his resort and not randomly confessing to Yuuji-san, screwing up the whole, well _everything_ ,  because Yuuji-san was going to freak out and never speak to him again and avoid him forever.

He was cut off from further diving into despair with a shout of his name and the sound of footsteps coming towards him. He turned around and saw Yuuji-san running to him.

“Sorry Go-kun! You’ve been waiting a lot?” asked panting.

“It’s fine Yuuji-san, I came ten minutes ago” he saw his phone and realized that he’s actually been waiting for half an hour. But that wasn’t necessary to be known.

“Good, good. Lemme catch my breath a little.” He placed his hands on his knees and breathed “I can’t believe a five minute run made me breathless! I’ve been in much worse shape than I thought”

Now that he could take a good look at him, he could see that he was not underdressed as Yuuji-san who was dressed similarly with grey skinny jeans , a dark green fitted shirt which showed his toned body and a black leather jacket.

He looked like a cool bad boy that all the girls swooned for. The multiple piercings in his ears shined through the artificial lights of the street.

“Alright! Let’s go have some fun!” he took Tsutomu’s hand and dragged him to the centre.

The inside is much more colourful and spacious from the outside, with someone standing at the  counter right by the entrance , you could see some of the equipment hanging in the walls and some of the accommodations like a climb wall, a glimpse of a swimming pool and a volleyball court. At the last one, his eyes lit up and turned to Yuuji-san who was talking to the guy in the counter, the conversation making him confused.

“—nd you’ll be here tonight so you can keep an eye on us! Come on man it was an one-time thing!”

“Okay, fine! But I am watching you through the cameras Terushima! Even a step towards the pool and I call security, you hear me!?”

“When did I even let you down ?” a sly smile reached his lips.

“Don’t make me change my mind.” The guy sighed tiredly. He then looked at Tsutomu “I feel sorry for your friend.”

“Fuck you!” he flipped the other off “he’s here willingly! Let’s go Go-kun! I got the entrance tickets!”

He swears he hears the guy muttering ‘good luck’ but doesn’t stop and goes by Yuuji-san’s side.

“Where should we go first? You haven’t been there before so it has many new things like table tennis , just tennis and something like Frisbee I guess! Oh and now that’s cold the ice skating is open! So, whaddya want ?” Yuuji-san babbled on with a childish expression, making him seem adorable in his biased eyes.

He wants to say that he saw the volleyball court but I doesn’t sit well with him. He is sure that the other boy has seen it too, but didn’t mention it. Maybe it’s because of the high school memories he has and he isn’t comfortable playing with someone else, especially someone like him who got a scholarship over it or…

“It has a volleyball court over there.” He finally said.

“Yeah, but I thought because you play like every day, how ‘bout we try something else for a change”

 

…Or maybe it’s something as simple as that.

In the end, the started with table tennis as he let Yuuji-san choose first and as Tsutomu found out it was more intense than he imagined. At the beginning he didn’t see the appeal, but as time went on he started being more competitive. Yuuji-san, it seems, was playing for a long time and his reflexes were so impressive that Tsutomu was envious.

“ It’s okay Go-kun! We will have a rematch next time!” Yuuji-san grinned smiled smugly after his third loss.

His loss was almost forgotten at the mention of a possible next time. Keyword, almost. Tsutomu doesn’t like to lose, period.

“Next time, I’m going to win!” he tells the other with a challenging tone.

“Sure, sure! We’ll see about that” but the challenge was already set.

After that, Yuuji-san insisted to try ice skating, something that Tsutomu has seen only rarely on TV when his father watched hockey matches. Putting the skates and actually standing and walking in them is something bizarre to him and he feels like a baby penguin doing its first steps.

But it is child’s play comparing to setting a foot in the actual ice. He almost slides off and he isn’t even fully in the rink!

He is hanging to the side rails like his life depends on it and tries to pull out his legs from the abnormal angle they’ve taken.

“Put your weight on the back of your feet and try to stand up straight”  he squawked at that and the balance he had managed slipped off.

Two hands are on him in an instant one at his back and the other at his arm to steady him “Woah there! Calm down” a humorous tone had taken over Yuuji-san’s voice as he corrected his posture “You okay?”

“Yuuji-san! You scared me! Please don’t do that again!” he whined when he found a safe position.

“Sorry sorry! Couldn’t help it! But no promises for the future, your reaction was hilarious”  was the amused reply.

He didn’t answer and instead turned to him. Yuuji-san was not holding off of anything and just gently skated around him in case he needed help  and Tsutomu has to concentrate really hard to stay of the ground and not let his mind marvel at how ethereal and soft yet fierce and powerful he looked on the rink.

When he finally followed the advice given to him, Yuuji-san asked if he’d like to try without holding the rails.

“I don’t think I can try that without breaking something now.”

“it’s fine Go-kun! Let’s just start from moving around the ring while holding the rails.” Yuuji-san suggested patiently.

And so they started doing that. Tsutomu was holding the rails while moving slowly around the rink and Yuuki-san at his open side encouraging him every now and then. Sometimes he came across a child or another amateur like him also holding the rails and so one of them had to move and Yuuji-san has to help him manoeuvre around the other person by holding him close. His mind lingers on how warm is Yuuji-san’s body and how perfect he fits against his own. He is shorter with a less broad and more lean figure than him and to be honest, Tsutomu is sure that their hugs would be amazing  (he shoos away the ifs for a second).

A little after the second round, he is more confident in his abilities and although he doesn’t let go the rails completely, he picks up the speed with Yuuji-san. He admits it feels refreshing and completely different, he chilling air on his face , his hair flowing with it , the complete opposite from the heat and sweat of the court. He turns to Yuuji-san who was skating beside him with a soft and relaxed smile on his slightly flushed face.

“Yuuji-san, you seem very used to this.” He noted curiously.

“I guess, I’ve been doing this since I was like seven so it comes pretty naturally.”

“Wow! You’ve been skating for so long! How did you pick it up?”

“My parents were very busy with work so they couldn’t take care of me all the time so I ended up going with my older siblings out on their clubs or activities. But most of them were team clubs so in the end I just stood there, bored out of my mind without supervision which cause me to do a lot of stuff and getting in trouble most of the time. I was a trouble child back then. ” He let out a snort in the memory. “The only one who could keep an eye on me was my eldest sister who did figure skating alone so I sat with her and at some point her teacher offered to teach me the basics so I wouldn’t be sitting out bored and to keep an eye on me at the same time.” He explained.

“That’s so cool! You mean you can do really impressive moves like a professional?”

“Well not the really fancy ones but a twist and turn here and there.”

“I wanna see it!” Tsutomu exclaimed loudly out of excitement.

“You sure? It’s nothing fancy.” But Tsutomu continued looking at him. He pretended to think about it, eyes shining playfully “Buuuuuut, if you insist, I guess I can humbly show me skills” he winked at him, jokingly.

He left Tsutomu’s side and went at the centre of the rink. He watched him taking a deep breath and then he started moving.

And to his biased and first-time-seeing-this eyes, it was magical.

It was like his body was flowing in the air, like the petals do in the wind. His body language changed as he did a turn in the air and landed on one foot raised. He spun a couple of times more, some while on air, some on the ice and the result was equally magnificent.

He was mesmerised by the way he moved. His moves may not be fancy and professional, but none the less they were elegant. The way Yuuji-san did it seemed effortless and spontaneous, like he was thinking about it after he acted. His turns were appearing playful, like a child enjoying spinning round and round, only without falling.

It seemed the one falling was him instead…

 

When the demonstration was over, he started clapping and looked around to see other people, from both the outside and the inside of the rink, joining him.  

Yuuji-san gave a dramatic bow, like theatre actors do and waved at them, the other hand above his heart and an ear-splitting grin on his face. Some of the spectators laughed and giggled at the gesture and some of them, mostly girls, waved back shyly or flirtatiously .

 “How was that?”  the older said when he approached him.

“It was amazing Yuuji-san! Truly beautiful!” he started to compliment the other but suddenly his mind stopped the filter. Fortunately for him, he realized it soon and stopped it. 

 But he seemed not to mind, “aren’t you a charmer Go-kun?” he laughed and give him a slap in the back.  Tsutomu sees that the tips his cheeks and the tips of this ears have taken a rosy red colour but he reads it as a result of the cold and the exercise he just did.

 “You wanna try skating without holding the rails?”

“I  am not sure…” he hesitated

“It’s fine, if you want, let’s go to somewhere warmer, yeah?”

The younger nodded in relief. The moment he stepped in the ground relief took over him. It must have been obvious as Yuuji-san snorted.

After they changed their shoes they headed towards the upper for of the centre, where there were coffee shops and lounge areas.

“So, are you having fun?”Yuuji-san asked when they sat at one of the tables.

“Yes! Thank you for bringing me here!” he says blushing slightly.

“Well, what kind of a senpai would I be if my junior is not enjoying himself?” the older said smugly.

“You didn’t have to bring me here you know”

“Yeah but I wanted to! You could bring your own squad sometime. Or if the campus court is closed, you can practice here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind! Thank you very much!” Tsutomu exclaims.

Silence falls after that until the waitress comes to take their orders.  It was a bit awkward and Tsutomu wanted to try to fill the silence.

“So, Yuuji-san , do you come here often?” he decides to ask in the end.

The older seemed amused at his effort and smiles mischievously at him.

“Are you flirting with me, Go-kun?” he bats his eyelashes rapidly.

 

It takes Tsutomu a few moments to comprehend what he meant and when he did, all the blood went to his head.

“N-N-No, I didn’t mean it that wa—please stop laughing at me!” he whined when he heard a booming laughter from his companion.

 “Sorry—” he wheezed “-orry! You are so fun to tease Go-kun! I can’t help it!”  he pretended to wipe tears of laughter from his eyes and took deep breaths to calm himself while Tsutomu was busy trying to cool his face with his hands.

“But yeah, I used to come a lot at my first year, especially in the pool but not anymore.”

“Why?”

The older rubbed the back of his neck “I was kinda …banned from it.” He said sheepishly and Tsutomu’s eyes widened.

“EHH??Why?!”

The older’s response was a uncoherent mumble.

“What?” he asks again.

“ ’cause I was caught skinny dipping in it.” he shrugs casually, like he’s talking about the weather  “That’s why the guy on the counter said that he’ll keep an eye on us. He was the one who caught me that time.”

 Tsutomu was pretty sure that his jaw was somewhere on the floor and his eyes were half the size of his head. He only heard about someone skinny dipping on those high school American movies when people jumped naked in a pool at a party.

“In my defence I was drunk and my ex-boyfriend was being an asshole so I took off, came here and just…jumped in I guess. I don’t regret it, to be honest!” He said defensively while crossing his arms in front of him.

_It was a guy?_ He wondered as he heard the story and a spark of hope filled him. That means he was attracted to guys and that made his heart lighter.

“Does it bother you? That I was dating a guy? I mean I dig both gals and pals but you seemed troubled.” Apparently he said it out loud and the blonde thought he wasn’t okay with what he heard.

“NO NO NO ! It’s completely fine!! I don’t have problem with you date! I like guys too! Or everyone for that matter! I just wonder what he did to make so mad ?” he quickly tried to reassure him and changing the subject.

“I caught the asshole making out with a girl at the same room! Can you believe the nerve?” he didn’t seem sad or heartbroken, just annoyed.

He shook his head, not really knowing what to say in a situation like this. He had never been the one people confine to, that was Reon-senpai’s main trait, that he was so dependable. He also couldn’t believe that someone would be so ungrateful to cheat on the person he had a relationship with, especially with someone as amazing and beautiful as Yuuji-san.

“Well, no use crying over spilled milk. We were together for only two months so I was over it quickly.”

After that, the air got more comfortable with Yuuji-san telling stories about the time he came here with his friends and co-workers and about his skating habits. He asked questions about Tsutomu’s love life until now but he responded that he was always focused on volleyball and he didn’t pay attention to any people, which would be true except if it weren’t for Semi-senpai and the person asking him these questions right that moment but he didn’t want to bring back embarrassing memories nor confess to the guy in front of him like that so he hid the complete truth.

Yuuji-san just pouted adorably ( _how can someone that punk-looking be so cute?_ He screamed mentally) but didn’t press on any further. It was surprising as people from his classes sometimes pressured him to come to a group date when the heard he was single because ‘having a scholarship athlete is a huge plus for all of them’ and that it ‘sits good with the ladies’ but luckily with Yachi’s help, he managed to dodge all of them so far. It puts a smile on his face knowing that Yuuji-san is an understanding person.

It was close to midnight when they decided to leave. He didn’t have practice at weekends and there was no rush to catch a train or a bus as both of them could walk to their homes. Tsutomu, out of habit, offered to accompany him to his house but Yuuji-san assured him that he could handle himself to walk on a busy street for a little while.

They said their goodbyes and parted ways and Tsutomu walked home that night with a spring in his step.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goshiki is me whenever I go ice skating! I used to go to a place in my area that had an ice ring and i loved it there (whenever i wasn't freezing to death) and even then we didn't go often so everytime was like the first time and half the time i was worrying when i would slit my own throat with my skates! Now i don't go at all, i don't know if the place is still open. Hmm...   
> Anyways, the edit for this one is a bit rushed so and from before the holidays so if you find a plot hole or something inconsistent from the previous chapters, tell me and i will fix it when i'm free.  
> Hope you enjoyed it!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A volleyball match and its aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hei everyone! I'm back with another chapter! It's earlier than I said but I won't be able to post the date I said. I'm too stressed for my exams and today is the only time i was free. I don't know if it shows but the chapter was edited less meticulously than the others. At least it's longer...
> 
> Thank you for the support on this fic! If you're reading this it means you continued to read and I'm grateful for that. I don't expect the fic to be like super popular because it's for a rare pair that didn't exist before (at least from the tag i searched) and i don't know if readers wanted. You are amazing and thank you from the bottom of my heart!
> 
> I hope you like the new chapter!

The bus ride doesn’t help melt down the tension. He doesn’t know whether it was excitement or nervousness about the outcome but he couldn’t sleep nonetheless. Next to him, Kanji-kun is mumbling in his sleep, head completely leaned to the window. The music from Shibayma –kun’s phone could be heard in the silence along with the sound of Nakashika-san and Hanayama-san’s conversation near the back of the bus.

The scene is something familiar yet foreign at the same time. He has lived the experience of going to the first official match of the season in order to qualify for the tournament several times in his middle and high school career, but it feels just like the first time. It’s possibly the fact that he was doing this with his university team and although they are compatible with each other on the court and have worked hard those two and a half months, it’s never been put to test on an official game until today.

When they arrived at the facility, he started looking around, marvelling the condition of it. It seems that his campus isn’t the only one with state of the art equipment, all prepared to perfection for the match. An hour was remaining till the match starts and he promptly started warming up. The bleachers were not as empty as he expected as many of the other teams cheer squad members were preparing too. Their own squad would arrive in around half an hour as the found some complications.

Doing laps and adjusting his breath and pace has become something natural to him. The sound of sneakers squeaking on the polished ground never changes. He watches his teammates ahead and sees the same determination he is feeling right now.

As the stretching goes by, more and more people are coming in and occupy the bleachers. It isn’t that surprising, as many of them have free time in a Sunday late morning and both universities seem to be held in high standards and a match between them is good entertainment.

The other team arrived while they were practicing serves and Tsutomu recognized some of them from one of the matches he saw the day before on video. There were also some new faces so the team play must be altered in some way. Luckily, it was the same case for them. In the meantime, the bleachers had become crowded and the cheer squads were cheering for their respective teams.

The sound of a whistle cut off his thoughts as it was finally time for the game to start.  The teams aligned in front of each other. All the players were inspecting their opponents, as did he, checking for any obvious power players. The captains walked until they were directly in front of each other and shook hands wishing each other a good game. They flipped a coin to see who will decide to have the first serve or choose a side of the, the other team coming out as a winner and deciding to have the first serve. Then, they went back to their teams and bowed.

Tsutomu was glad that he was one of the starters, but also a little sad that he was the only first year to be so. He knew that his teammates weren’t holding any grudges and that it was a big achievement for him, but he wanted for his teammates to have the same opportunity and share the same feeling of accomplishment. At least the captain said that they will switch at some point of the game.

The other team’s player gets into position to deliver the first serve. Tsutomu is in the back row at the left side and gets ready for a receive.

The ball comes towards them with force and he shouts to receive and thus setting the ball in the air, Hanayama senpai sets it and both he and the captain jump to spike. His hand hits the air as the captain spikes the ball at the other side, granting them the first point.

Their cheer squad and the spectators shout cheers and praises and he receives a high-five from the captain from the successful synchronized attack. Now that they’ve set the pace for the first set the pressure lightens a little.

But it seems the opponent was prepared, the next time they attempt this Tsutomu’s spike gets blocked and their setter is adjusting quickly to their play. Still he manages to get some spikes through the gaps of their blocks or using the middle blockers to send back a second chance. His hair’s become damp and the uniform is slightly clinging to him from all the sweat.

Fukunaga-senpai is switching with their third year libero makes a visible difference in their play as it becomes less about the force of the spikes and more about the place they spike. Fukunaga-senpai at first seems like the kind of guy that has many gaps in his technique but on the way it becomes clear that he plays in a sneaky way.

The first set ends with them getting it after a lot of struggle, but it was worth it. They are all panting as they sit at the benches and drink from their bottles while listening to the coach about the changes they are going to do in the next set.

In the next set, Kanji-kun is going to play in Hanayama-san’s position. It’s Komaki-senpai who first spouts the comment ‘you’ve been replaced by the younger generation, old man’ causing the team to laugh and said old man to whine pathetically. Tsutomu feels content at the friendly atmosphere surrounding his team.

They step in the other side of the court and get into position. He glances at Kanji-kun and sends him a happy grin which the latter sends back.

Tsutomu takes a deep breath, licks his lips and throws the ball up to perform a jump serve. He is unconsciously careful not to step into the court line and lose the point. He doesn’t apply all his strength on it as not to go out (it has happened way too many times to count) and waits those milliseconds that the ball needs to get to the other side.

When the loud thud of the ball hitting the polished floor, he released the breath he didn’t know he was holding. The referee waved the flag to show that the point was counted and Tsutomu cheered loudly. He took a small moment to hear the cheers for him from the bleachers and pride coursed through his chest.  But there was no more time to celebrate, the set has just begun and they had to win this.

Kanji-kun’s sets have become more accurate with years of experience since Tsutomu had last seen him at the first years’ training camp and with the constant hard training they are going through now, it’s even more apparent how much he has grown. The both of them have become very compatible with each other and their play during the game was mostly synchronized.

But what they failed to see was that the other team also has a few aces up their sleeves. They had become more aggressive yet still had increased the number of dumps or serves near the net, cuasing a lot of problems. Some of them were impossible to save and others were a matter of millisecond differences between the ball hitting the ground and someone trying to save. It was frustrating at the least. With this method the other team managed to steadily rise to the twenty five points needed to win the set.

The captain gave all of them a firm slap in the back as encouragement and motivation .

“We haven’t lost! We still have one more set! Let’s not get disappointed yet!”

“Yes captain!” everyone shouted firmly, the fire in their eyes still burning strongly.

The last set was like a game of chess. No one knew the other’s  next move so they had to be prepared for anything. Tsutomu felt strangely at ease with the tense atmosphere. His every nerve was electrocuted to the smallest movement he sees, ready to respond immediately. And he loved it. It was moments like this that made him so happy that he didn’t need anything else. Just a blood chilling game of volleyball brought up the best of his fighting spirit.

After successful and failed spikes, sets and receives it finally came to the final points. The score was 29-30 in their favour and all he needed was one point to end the constant ties.

It was Asamushi senpai’s serve (they had switched in the middle of the set) and everybody could tell by his tensed shoulders that the entire weight of the game has fall upon them. His eyes were focused and his hands always steady, Asumushi senpai was not one to let pressure crush him down.

“Asamushi nice serve!” was the call from him and Kanji-kun both of them looking straight ahead.

The serve was perfectly received by one of the opponent spikers and expertly pass to the setter. In his turn, he passed on the other spiker who had a wide space available in the court to deliver the point.

But at the last moment the spike was blocked by Tsutomu and Kazuhito-senpai as they formed a powerful block, sending the ball on the floor of the opponent side’s court.

For a moment there was silence but then mayhem was caused by everyone’s cheers , including his teammates and his as he felt his throat hurting from all the shouting.

They congratulated the other team for their game and left with the pleasant weight of victory upon their shoulders.

He spotted Yachi and Kiyoko next to the coach, they had arrived after the game had already started. They gave them their largest miles and Yachi ran towards him and hugged his waist, shyness completely forgotten after their first days of their friendship.

“Congratulations Goshiki-kun! You played really well! I mean – your serve was just perfect and I know you were nervous about it and—“ his laugh cut her off before she could get to more technicalities.

“Thank you very much Yachi! Your advice was really useful!” he smiled and patted her head.

Before either of them could say anything more Kiyoko interrupted them “the captain said something about going out to eat to celebrate. It’s already noon.” And with a gentle touch on his arm she continued “Good game today”. Kiyoko wasn’t the most talkative of people but those few words held more warmth that it appeared.

The team decided to settle to one of the restaurants near the court they just played and then head back to their campus.  The older players knew the premise pretty well because they have had matches like this many times in the past so they had solid opinions about the places with the tastiest food and lower prices.

The finally went in a grill restaurant which served the best cheap meat in the area. Just the thought of it made Tsutomu salivate, after such an exhausting match a good tray of meat was heaven.

By the looks of the others when they were hearing the meat sizzle in the grill, it seemed that he wasn’t the only one. The smell was divine and he had a hard time controlling his stomach from making sounds.

Luckily, a distraction in the form of his phone came as it made a sound that indicated he had a message. Curious,  he pulled it out of this bag and unlocked it and opened the message up.

The name that he saw as the senders made him furrow his eyebrows.

**(14:23) Terushima Yuuji-san :** can u close a lil earlier 2morrow nite?

He blushed at the message, as he did almost every time he texted Yuuji-san. A couple of months ago, they didn’t even know each other and now they are texting more often than his heart can take. Unfortunately, his reaction didn’t go unnoticed as Yachi looked at him for her seat next to him.

“Are you okay Goshiki-kun? Your face is red.” she whispered and he looked around to see if anyone else caught that. Relief washed over him as he saw that no one did.

“I’m fine Yachi, it’s just … Yuuji-san texted me just now”  his face was probably totally red as he said that and showed her his phone. He could trust Yachi with his problems and seek for advice because he didn’t want to go through these feelings alone.

She looked at the screen “I didn’t know that you and Terushima-kun meet with each other, after that time we visited ‘180 degrees’ ” she commented curiously.

Felling a bit guilty from not telling her, he explained how they met again after his first day of work on the convenience store that Kiyoko-san told him about and the progress of their relationship until now. His tone was uncharacteristically quiet as he didn’t want someone else overhearing and furthering his embarrassment. Yachi stayed silent and nodded while he was talking.

When he finished his story, Yachi was aware of his crush without him explicitly declaring it.

“I’m really happy for you Goshiki-kun.” She tells him after he finishes “I think you should be more bold though if you want your feelings to reach Terushima-kun”

“What? That’s not- I mean that I—” he stumbles his words and nothing can save him now from the embarrassment. He can’t even hide his face in his hands without the team noticing.

Yachi giggles and pat his knee playfully “oh please, like it’s not obvious. I’m surprised Terushima-kun hasn’t realized yet.”

He sighs in defeat, not able to deny anything any longer “I try to hide it, I don’t want to ruin our friendship for what may be nothing.”

“I think you shouldn’t restrain yourself with guilt because there’s a chance that it’s nothing. I was thinking similar stuff before I got together with Kiyoko and in the end I tried my best, despite my fears and doubts. And look at me now.” She turned to briefly glance at her girlfriend who was preventing Komaki-senpai stab the captain with his chopstick while Fukunaga-senpai laughed at the scene “I am dating the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen for almost three years. So I say you allow yourself to feel . And when the time you think is right comes, make the choice that you don't want to regret.  Everything is better than wondering the rest of your life what’d have happened.”

“I don’t know Yachi, when will I know that time you say?.”  
“When you have your feeling sorted out,  without feeling guilty. Whether it’s friendship or other, only you can tell.”

At that, he hesitated. He wanted to believe that what he was feeling is friendly love or even admiration for the other, but every time Yuuji-san was near him he couldn’t help but think how natural it is to be by his side, how the older’s hand would feel in his and how soft his hair and lips looked. These are not thoughts that he thinks about his friends. Those were thought he used to think about when he was beginning to crush hard on Semi-senpai , but that turned out to be something he got over after a while. Was it the same case now?

 At his lack of response, Yachi just patted his leg again “Don’t worry too much, whatever happens, you have friends who care about you and will be there for you if you need it, like me and Kiyoko and Kanji-kun”

“Thanks”

“It’s nothing. Now aren’t you going to reply to the text?”

He almost forgot about that. He quick got back his phone and replied.

  
**(14:40) me:** I can, did something happen? Are u ok?

**(14:41) Terushima Yuuji-san:** Don’t worry!1 u’ll  c then ;)

Was that a… wink face ? the only other person who sent him those is Tendou-senpai and even then, he got flustered really easily making it even funnier. He wondered how Ushijima-san copes with it every day in person now that they live together .

“Hey Goshiki, you okay? Your face is beet red” Hanayama-senpai asked him from the other side of the table.

He groaned at the attention, Yachi and Kiyoko chuckled next to him.

“Yes senpai  I am fine” he responded as he stuffed his face with hot grilled meat.

 He got a burning tongue and mouth for it but they dropped the subject, so it was worth it.

***

The moment he steps into the shop for his shift, he is grabbed and hugged until he almost ran out of breath.

“Tsutomu darling! Congratulations on your win yesterday!” Rangiku squealed happily into his ear and both of her arms were around his neck pushing her towards her chest.

He wanted to say thanks but air wasn’t in his lungs at the moment and he started feeling a little faint.

“Boss, you are smothering him.” Tatsuki-san’s amused voice reached vaguely his ears as he was about to pass out. He was promptly let go and his lungs filled with sweet air again.

“I’m so sorry dear! Anyway I’m so happy for you! I stayed here a little later so I can see you!”

“you came to the game?”

“oh no darling, I saw it on your university’s site on the internet! I don’t know much about volleyball but the videos that they had made you really cool! If I wasn’t married with a child and ten years younger, I’d definitely have a crush on you!” she winked.

“Thank you…I guess?” he answered confused.

“I saw that too. Congrats kid. You seem to know what you’re doing.” The younger of the two girls gave him a thumbs up.  Now that they were both here and still talking about the game…

This was his chance to ask the question!

“hey Rangiku?” he trailed off a little “can I close a little earlier tonight?” he looked at her straight in the eye, hoping he didn’t seem as nervous as he felt.

“Hmm? Why?”

“W-well y-you see… a friend of mine asked me if I could so I can go see him a little earlier?” it came out as a question because he had no clue what Yuuji-san wanted from him.

“oh? Tsutomu has a date! Of course dear you can leave with Tatsuki-chan! It’s not that will lose a huge crowd of costumers, so don’t worry about it!” she clapped her hands together and gave him a cheeky smile.

“no no no no, you misunderstand Rangiku! It’s not a d-date or something!” he hates the way his speaks stutters and his ears burn.

“Yeah right! It’s the punk from the other day right? You totally asked him out” Tatsuki said smugly.

“Ahh yes yes! The kid Tatsuki –chan told me you like? What’s he like? I am sure he is very handsome to have captured your heart, right?”

“NO! you are both wrong. I mean yes it’s Yuuji-san and he’s very handsome BUT I didn’t ask him out or anything!” he exclaimed loudly to convince the girls -or himself- “we are just friends” he finished.

From their equally unimpressed faces, it seemed to have failed to do so.

“well, I guess we don’t have any say in this but if you need any advice, don’t hesitate, alright?” Rangiku gave him a understanding smile, like she saw his internal conflict. Tatsuki-san mirrored the look. 

He answers with a shy nod and a grateful smile.

“Perfect! I will be going now, I am already late and Gin’s probably made dinner already and I want to tuck Toshiro in so bye bye!” she turns and gives Tsutomu a big kiss on the cheek “don’t worry, the lipstick is one that doesn’t stick, we wouldn’t want you smudged on your not-date, right” she snickered and went to the same to Tatsuki but the younger girl crossed her arms in a ‘try me’ way and the former dropped it with a dramatic sigh.

Once she was gone the place went comfortably silent as both the employees were occupied with their posts. Tatsuki-san started doing school work at some point as there were no costumers here. He decided to do his grocery shopping for the week, he was getting low on supplies at home and now there was no rush to choose what he wanted. He was once again grateful for the deal he had with Rangiku, because he had the chance to buy products that he’d never tried before or use them to make new recipes without ripping apart his wallet.

Tatsuki was scanning and packing his groceries “Rangiku didn’t joke around about asking for help. She likes you like a little brother, even though she knows you for a couple of months.” She picked up a pack that she’d dropped “I guess it was the same for me too. We’ve known each other for 3 years that I’ve been working here.  What I’m tryin’ to say is that she is good at giving advice and don’t be afraid to trust her. I am here too if you want someone to beat this punk or others up.” She gave him her signature terrifying grin.

“Thank you Tatsuki-san, but there’ll be no need to beat him up. He’s a good guy” he smiled warmly at her with a slightly pleading look to not go and cause chaos anywhere.

She nodded “it’s time to close. And for you to get on your not-a-date-just-friends-meeting.” She laughed at the scandalized expression he had and his whiny tone when he said her name.

Those women will make him die from embarrassment one day.

After they said their goodbyes, he headed to ‘180 degrees’ with his heart thumping like crazy from the unknown. What’s Yuuji-san planned to do?

Yuuji-san was waiting for him at the entrance of the shop but the shop itself was still open and he was still wearing his work uniform.

“Yo Go-kun! Come in ! come in!” he greeted and went back inside before they even greeted each other. Tsutomu, totally confused, blindly followed him.

Apart from the very first time he came he with Kiyoko and Yachi, he hadn’t come again because well…he forgot. But now that he walked into the café, no, now was a full-fledged bar, it was like going into a different store. The wooden furniture seemed older and more polished with the yellow lighting, giving it the look of an elegant vintage bar in which wealthy people frequent and do business deals and drink together while listening to the smooth music from the old jukebox. Right now it was empty except for him and Yuuji-san.

“Hava a seat, dear costumer.” the older said with a polite yet sly tone.

He reluctantly sat in one of the bar stools and watched Yuuji-san stand in front of the huge wall with selves and selves of alcohol bottles of different brands he had no idea about.

“So… what do you want?”

“Eh? Yuuji-san I don’t understand.”

“we’ll have a drink to celebrate your first victory yesterday as a university team’s player! And a starting one at that!” .

“I don’t drink Yuuji-san! I’m not even of age yet! I am sorry but I cannot join you” he tried to decline as politely as possible.

“You know, you’re really mean Go-kun. First, you don’t tell me about your match on Sunday even though we spend all Friday night together. I had to learn it from Kiyoko when she left the shift because she had to go to an official match! And then you don’t accept my victory gift! So cruel Go-kun!” he rambled dramatically, crossing his forearms on the bar and pouting his head on them. He looked at Tsutomu with a puppy eyes and an intense pout, similar to the one at the centre a few weeks ago. The latter mentally cursed how adorable he looked and how affected he was by it.

“I am really sorry Yuuji-san! It slipped my mind and didn’t tell you.” He apologized deeply for his forgetfulness, trying at the same time to resist the other’s face by changing the subject.

“Apology not accepted! I am deeply disappointed that you didn’t tell me! I could’ve taken the day off to come.”

Tsutomu’s heart throbbed at the sincerity of his words. He hopes he didn’t show it.

“But it was a two hour drive away. I couldn’t possibly expect from you!”

“Nonsense! I’d borrow a friend’s car to come. Just because I don’t play anymore doesn’t mean that I stopped caring.” There was a little hurt in his tone and Tsutomu almost grimaced. He didn’t want to cause such distress to Yuuji-san! That tone didn’t suit his beautiful voice and face.

He had to fix this.

“This was the only match for now, the others are after midterms. I promise you that after those I’ll send you the details for every match!” he said proudly and puffed his chest, as he tries his best to keep the promises he makes. “But please if they’re far from here, don’t feel the need to come” he pleaded with him.

“You started it off so good… ” he sighed “ For now tell me what do you want to drink” he grinned beautifully at him and he felt glad that he was able to lift his mood.

“I told you I don’t—” he was cut off

“Pleeeeeeeeeeease?!” there was that now infamous pout that was still doing funny and wondrous things to his heart.

_I am not the cruel one here_ he thought bitterly as he felt himself giving up.

“okay… but! Something with almost no alcohol! I have practice tomorrow morning.” he ordered, as he didn’t want to mess with his discipline.

“ok!” and then he started touching and looking at bottles, looking for the ideal drink to make, humming softly under his breath along with the song playing.

He put a hand on his cheek and leaned on it as he watched, enchanted by the bartender’s _everything_ to be honest. From the way his body was swaying slightly in the same rhythm with his humming, to how the lighting made this hair appear golden and his tanned skin really smooth.

A tall glass with a dark coloured drink that gave him a more tropical and summer vibe than suitable for the cold weather, with lots of ice and what looked like blueberries on the bottom of the glass.

“It’s a tall coconut cocktail, it's has little alcohol so you don’t have to worry. Try it!”

He picked up the glass and took a small sip.

It was surprisingly really good. He could taste a little bit of alcohol but nothing drastic. It was refreshing. 

When he told him that, Yuuji-san gave him a look that said ‘I told you so’ and made his own drink.

After that they talked about Yuuji-san’s work and what kind of drinks he makes. He on his turn gushed about the match he played and even if he exaggerated a little Yuuji-san lit up eyes were completely worth it.

With the insistence of the older male, he took a  second drink and fortunately he didn’t feel woozy by the alcohol.

After that they decided to leave as Yuuji-san had the regular bus to catch. He walked him to the station and a steady pace, he was careful about that.

“You worried about the effects of the alcohol? ” he cheekily asked.

“Yeah, it’s my first time seriously drinking alcohol and not just taking a sip to try it. So I am worried.”

“Don’t be, I wouldn’t let you get wasted even if you wanted to.” he giggled at that and despite that he didn’t seem affected by the alcohol.

“Aren’t you Yuuji-san? You have more drinks than me.” He voiced his curiosity.

“Nah, the ones I make are good. The shitty ones that give at clubs make me hammered in two shots.” He responded .

After a few moments of silence he continued “I am glad I took your first time.”

Tsutomu choked on his own spit and coughed. Yuuji-san erupted from laughter. “You are so fun to tease!”  as he roared in laughter at his embarrassment.

“Yuuji-san” he whined and the slight sense of Deja-vu came to him.

“well that’s my stop! I will see you tomorrow right?”

“Of course, Yuuji-san good night.”

He wasn’t surprised by the softness of his  own voice as he spoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if it's obvious but i don't know how to describe sport games (in english at least). I hope it was enough and coherent.  
> Same with alcohol! I don't drink at all and so i had to search like articles and articles about booze. In the draft i had another drink written (a Raspberry and Aperol Float to be exact) but i changed it.  
> Also I love Terushima! Especially since i started writting him in this fic! I hope you like him too in here. I so headcanon that he texts like that all the time and when he's in hurry, the texts are a bunch of letters that make no sense.  
> Leave a Kudo or a Comment if you want and thank you again for reading!  
> See you on the next chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hei everyone! I'm back again! I got finished with midterms ten days ago and I was taking some time off to start collecting my remaining self-esteem and relaxing! I also wrote some things to not forget the ideas I have! It's really frustrating having an idea for a fic in the middle of midtems and wanting so bad to write it but if you turn on the computer then it's guaranteed that you'll stop studying for the day! so i had to focus! 
> 
> Unfortunately, I didn't make progress on this fic! I'M VERY SORRY EVERYONE! I'm stuck in the same spot I was last time and it's not even a large scene! this chapter is one i've written a while ago. I've been banging my head in a wall to figure out how i'm going to continue this and I have some ideas but nothing set in stone! 
> 
> I'm really sorry but the updates are going to be irregular from now on because I realized that I suck at schedules, especially in long fics! Please bear with me. I thank you for all the support i'm honestly disappointed in myself for not thinking this through and letting my head go all rowdy and shit! 
> 
> Also in this chapter not many things have - and by that i mean it's boring. I know that maybe it's not what you've been waiting (if you've been waiting because i can't blame you if you haven't) to hear/read after a long update but I'm still sorry again! I WILL finish this, it's my first fic and i honestly love it, like all my works. So I don't want it to be half assed. For you and for me! I'm constantly thinking about this so it's not I have given up on it. On both the fic and the pairing. In fact i've been working on a new GoshiTeru fic that I've written the first chapter of and I'll update once I have a least half of it done! So it might take a while!
> 
> Anyways, after all this mess of a note, here is the chapter.

  
“Mom, I’m not done with my classes yet……. Yes, Yes I’ll be there on the 24th I swear! I’ve already booked the train ticket! Don’t worry, everything is fine, nothing has changed since your last call two days ago. Alright I’m hanging up…….tell Dad I said hi and that I’ll bring souvenirs…. I’ll see you in a few days… love you too, Mom.” He sighed heavily as he hang up. 

He checked at time, and gasped. He was going to be late for his shift. His phone call with his mother took longer than he thought it would and now Tatsuki will be glaring at him for the rest of the night for being late. He almost ran to the store when he got off the bus and when he arrived the was met with an almost disappointed glare from Tatsuki and a frustrated sigh.  With his head looking down and his shoulders slumped, he headed to the changing room.

He’d changed his pants and was taking off his shirt when the door burst open and Rangiku came in skipping, paying no mind on his half-nakedness.

“Ah! Tsutomu, dear! Tatsuki-chan told me you’d be in here!” she sat on one of the chairs.

“Is there something urgent you need help with?” he was used to changing in front of a lot of people from all the time spent in the locker rooms and by the way Rangiku came in, she didn’t mind either.

“of course! I wanted to tell you that the day after tomorrow you and Tatsuki-chan will be coming over to my place for a Christmas dinner!” she declared “you’ll be meeting Toshiro and Gin too! i’m so excited!”

“Rangiku, are you sure about inviting your employees to your own house?  I’ve been working here for” he paused to calculate “a little over three months, so don’t think I’ve earned that level of trust ye-” a manicured finger came on his lips to silence him.

“don’t be silly! I’ve known Tatsuki –chan for years and the fact that she hasn’t told me something really negative about you makes you my guest too! You don’t argue with me on that” the intense stare he was receiving was keeping him frozen.

“perfect! Now tell me what food do you like so I can tell Gin!”

He exited the room already exhausted and headed to one of the chairs behind the counter.

“hey kid, your shirt is upside down” Tatsuki smirked at him from her chair and after apologizing with a deep bow to the costumer who just came in, he ran back to change, Tatsuki’s howling laughter echoing through the shop.

The shop had more costumers than usual as it was a few days before Christmas and many people were having their last minute shopping or grabbing something premade as an easy choice. They didn’t have much more time to chat as both the employees and often Rangiku were busy servicing them. If Tsutomu hadn’t his athletic reflexes and was used to see thing really briefly, he would have been dizzy from scanning so many items so fast and his neck would be painful to move.

The end of his shift came in, what seemed, a matter of seconds. After Tatsuki leaving, he and Rangiku were left alone to deal with a steady crowd of costumers.  The sudden increase must have also been due to the other shops being open till later than usual to gain more profit from the people going out to celebrate.  Now that he checked the clock on the wall they, too, were done later than usual.

“Tsutomu, I’m going to close the shop now! Do you want me to give you a ride to your house? It’s really late!” Rangiku asked as she was locking the frozen food aisle.

He was about to decline her offer as he suddenly remembered that he had to pick up Yuuji-san.  He checks his phone to send a message to apologize for being late but the older beat him to it.

**(00:47)Terushima Yuuji-san** : YO! Go-kun!!1 im workin l8 again so you don’t have 2 come a colleague will give me a ride. Sowwy!  

He tried not to show his disappointment on his face his posture slumped the slightest . He assisted Rangiku with locking and checking the supplies and walked to her car.

The pop music the woman liked was blasting through the car with her singing along the lyrics loudly, some of them correctly and others in total gibberish . He couldn’t tell her that her voice wasn’t that good and that she was off-key because her expression showed that she enjoyed it so much and just laughed along with her.

“You seem better now dear!” he said, lowering down the music and stopping at the red light.

“eh?”

“don’t ‘eh’ me! I saw how bumped you were a little while ago!” the music was much lower now and the tapping of her manicured nails on the steering wheel could be heard.

“It’s nothing Rangiku, don’t worry about it!” he rubbed the back of his neck.

 “Is it about the boy you like?” came the sly question he was afraid of.

“I don’t know what are you talking about.” he says confidently.

 “reaaaaaaally” from  her tone, she was not convinced “ because you don’t seem like yourself these past days. Not only now, but other times too, as Tatsuki-chan tells me in her reports” at the last part he looked at her. The light turned green and she started the car again.

He should have known that Tatsuki-san’s reports didn’t stop at that one time, what he didn’t know were his own down moments and thoughts showed so freely on his face.

Due to the holiday season, Tsutomu wasn’t able to meet up with Yuuji-san at the end of their shifts since a little after the beginning of December. Their working hours have become irregular as the older was working more and longer shifts to the café-bar because many of his coworkers have taken holiday leaves.

They continue to text but this too was becoming sparse. Sometimes he would pass in front of the ‘180 degrees’ and see that it was full of people and the workers were going back and forth the tables like crazy. He didn’t go in, he didn’t want to be a burden to Yuuji-san who was working hard. From what Kiyoko told him from her own extra shift experiences, he seemed stressed  and  focused on his work. The exams coming in a month wasn’t a consolation for anybody.

But that didn’t make him less disappointed. He missed the night walks they had and being together in general.  He missed speaking with Yuuji-san and being around his happy and playful aura. They couldn’t even meet up on campus with their completely different faculties and lecture hours. Then he went straight to practice so no chance on meeting there either.

He simply stared down the window, accidentally forgetting the question he was asked. Rangiku must have taken it as confirmation as she patted his thigh when they stopped at a red light.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked softly, seeing his bummed expression. He quickly apologized for making the mood miserable. She dismissed him immediately

“you’re just imaging it. If I was feeling crappy, trust me, it’d be obvious. Gin always tells me that my face always tells my mood.”  She smiled and Tsutomu could see it was sincere.

He contemplated about telling her but he didn’t want to start complaining to Rangiku. He already told Yachi but because she was his friend and as she told him in a similar situation. Not that he didn’t trust his boss, but to him it was like bothering her with his problems.

He tries to play it off that it was nothing but her stern look was like reading his mind. He avoided eye contact from the beginning of this conversation and it was becoming obvious that she was not going to take this any longer.

“Look, Tsutomu, I know sometimes, I’m being noisy, believe me a lot of people have said that to my face but I know something is bothering you and you can tell me about it. Your secrets are safe with me. And don’t worry about me being your boss, none of this is going to affect our work relationship.” She smiled compassionately “it’s just that Tatsuki-san and I are worried about you”

He looked outside the window, guiltily avoiding looking into her eyes .

“It’s nothing Rangiku. You don’t have to be worried about me” he said in the end.

“Clearly not if it’s making you so down. It’s about the boy you’ve told us about, isn’t it?”

He sighed.

After a moment of silence, he was startled by a punch on his shoulder.

“But it doesn’t have to be like that, eh?” Rangiku started, her voice back to its usual cheerful note “It’s disheartening seeing you all mopey and frowny! Doesn’t suit your cute face at all!”

“Thank you very much for-” he started replying but she cut him off, again.

“Be more confident in yourself, not a douche tough, those are the worse. I’m gonna smack you if you be like that! Be like when you play! You looked hot like that!” she told him and heat rushed to his face from the compliment. But she was right.

His horrified expression makes her accidentally press the car’s horn from laughing so hard, startling them both. Another car honked back at them and Rangiku flipped the driver off as they drove passed the car. They were approaching his house so he gave her instructions on where to head until they stopped in front of his apartment complex.

He took off his seatbelt but didn’t get out of the car. Instead he grabbed one of Rangiku’s hands and held it with both of his, looked at her in the eye and thanked her with a sincere tone and fiery eyes.

She looked back at him with a grin “That’s what I’m talking about! look at that handsome and cute face! You’ll make heart throb in a blink of an eye! ” she pinched his cheek with her free hand and pulled it with fierce strength.

She finally let him go and Tsutomu could feel his cheek throbbing from pain. He got out of the car and headed to the building after Rangiku said “I’ll root for you Tsutomu-chan” in response to his goodbye.

When he got to the apartment, the first thing was to wash his face to stop the reddening. He then showered briefly and watched a little TV. Sleep wasn’t coming to him.

Fifteen minutes into an episode of one of those crime series, he started staring at his phone that was laying at the kotatsu, thinking about Rangiku’s words.

He knew that every time he was starting to doubt himself, his actions were becoming more erratic and less productive. His first year in Shiratorizawa was the most obvious proof. He remembered at that critical much with Karasuno when he was starting to overthink his actions and as a result, it costed the whole team to lose points by his hesitation. He was losing focus on the ball in front of him and stupidly gave the opponent the advantage they needed. It was Ushijima-senpai’s words that snapped him out of his doubts and with the silent acknowledgement he did his best for the rest of the game.

But when they lost, the first one he blamed was himself. Every point counted, especially at the last set, and yet he messed up. The days after that were hard as he was constantly thinking of what could he have done to correct his mistakes. He pushed himself even harder at practice, sometimes in the expense of his heath. At some point, the third years , who had retired at that time intervened and after a good scolding and two weeks of being under watch, he went back to normal.

But that year was not just volleyball. Before that match, he had the infamous crush on Semi-senpai. Tsutomu would avoid him many times when not at practice and refused to look at him in the eye. It was before he went to talk to Reon-senpai, when his emotions were a mess. He was careful not to see Semi-senpai while they were doing stretches and generally to maintain only the necessary eye contact. At least in this case the problem was more easily solved after he confessed and he went back to normal surprisingly fast.

 For the next two years in the Academy there were no incidents like those as the responsibility of being a senpai and later a captain and ace, he had no time to second guess himself as he had people that relied on him and he didn’t want to let them down.

And now, it was happening again. Over a stupid reason. Because he started overthinking again. He looked at the texts he sent Yuuji-san and became angry at himself as he saw that they were becoming like something he wouldn’t write himself. He smiled at the energy Yuuji-san’s texts had, despite the horrible spelling, and the way he used way too many emojis to express himself. Tsutomu could imagine him making those faces as he was typing these texts. He seemed like the type to be sending ‘lol’ to someone and genuinely laughing.

From the texts he couldn’t tell if Yuuji-san sensed if something’s wrong but he never showed it. But that doesn’t mean that he’s not thinking it.

Tsutomu is going to fix this, he isn’t going to let his doubts pull him away from Yuuji-san or make the older worried about him or doubt if Tsutomu is enjoying his company.

He grabbed his phone in almost superhuman speed and in second he found what he was looking for.

He didn’t think twice when he pressed the call button.

**_Calling Terushima Yuuji-san …_ **

**Author's Note:**

> I hoped you liked it! I tried to put characters that are not so known (haikyuu wikia was always open while i was writing this!) because they give me more potential to develop their characters. They give me a free canvas to paint their characters with a plethora of character traits. I hope I made someone's day with that! And I want to wish happy birthday to everone whose birthday is today! I hope you are happy and do things and hang out with people that make you happy!  
> I hope you come again for the next chapter!


End file.
